NABARD to organise State Level Programme on Awareness Campaign on Promotion of Farmer Producers Organisations

Ludhiana, December 25, 2018: NABARD, being an apex development organisation, has been instrumental
in innovating, designing and grounding scalable social and economic enterprises in rural areas through community participation. Taking this forward and keeping in view the significant emphasis laid by Government of India on enhancing farmers’ income, NABARD has innovated and demonstrated that farmers’ collectives, especially comprising of small and marginal farmers, in the form of Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) can be effective in enhancing farmers’ income and boosting the agriculture growth.

Mr Parveen Bhatia, Assistant General Manager (DD), NABARD Ludhiana, informed that taking a lead from this initial encouraging response from the farmers, NABARD has decided to promote FPOs in a big way in the potential sectors and areas of the State. Sensitisation of farmers through information dissemination and awareness creation is important for making any programme a success. Thus, NABARD has embarked upon to launch a statewide awareness campaign on FPO promotion in Punjab during 2018-19. Around 3000 programmes will be held in cluster of 2-3 villages each in all the districts of the State. Through this campaign, the dual objectives of motivating farmers to organize themselves into FPOs and achieving synergies and convergence amongst various stakeholders is envisaged.

He said that NABARD Punjab Regional Office headed by Mr J P S Bindra as Chief General Manger has promoted 91 FPOs in Punjab. This campaign will be launched by Mr VP Singh Badnore, Hon’ble Governor Punjab and Administrator U T Chandigarh on December 27, 2018 at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and will be attended by senior State Government officials, Banks, NGOs and other stakeholders.