Enabling and inhibiting factors of sustainability of Farmer's Producers Organisations in India

Abstract

Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) are farmers' collectives or farmer-led business entities seeking to empower small and marginal farmers in India. Some farmer's collectives successfully achieve their goals and some often fail to meet the increasing demands in the agribusiness ecosystem. However, the academic literature glorifies the success studies of farmers' collectives. There are mentions of sustainability issues of farmers' collectives. However, not enough studies point to the factors that influence the organisational sustainability of farmers' collectives. Therefore, in this paper, the researchers aim to explore both the enabling and inhibiting factors of sustainability of farmer's collectives. A thematic synthesis process was applied to compile information from published literature. The study compiles enabling and inhibiting sustainability factors from 22 studies of FPOs. A qualitative approach using focused group discussion with farmers in FPO was completed to validate the findings from secondary data sources and collect empirical evidence directly from the farmers. The methodology guarantees inclusivity by collecting the voices of farmers through focused group discussion. Key enabling and inhibiting factors of sustainability of FPOs were categorized into economic, social, and environmental dimensions of organisational sustainability. In the economic dimension, improved agricultural income of farmers was reported as an enabling factor for sustainability, while some FPOs report capital shortage as a main hindrance for organisational sustainability in FPOs. The social dimension claims the collective bargaining power of members and effective capacity-building and collaboration opportunities as enabling factors. However, farmers highlight without good leadership strategies, and upskilling of farmers attaining sustainability is a mirage. Effective organisational activities like branding, marketing of products, access and awareness about capacity building were derived as the enabling factors in the environmental dimension of organisational sustainability, whereas, poor infrastructure lack of robust organisational structure, and climate change were termed as inhibiting factors. Understanding these sustainability factors can help policymakers to develop farmer-friendly collectives which enhance agriculture and food systems that will help achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1—Zero Poverty and SDG 2—End hunger.