Enhancing Farmer’s Income and Farmer Producer Organizations’ (FPOs) in India

Abstract

The agriculture sector in India has spent the last few decades primarily focusing on expanding agricultural output and enhancing food security. This approach included the following steps: first is, enhancing production through the use of high-quality seeds, agricultural chemicals, fertilizers, and irrigation. Second is, providing subsidies for farm inputs and paying fair prices for crops. Third is, Public investments in agriculture, and last is institutions that facilitate trade. Mid through the 1960s, the nation experienced a food shortage. In India, the green revolution overcome the path to address the food crisis that had persisted for the previous fifty years. India's population increased by 2.55 times while production of food increased by 3.7 times, which has made India a self-sufficient country in the food industry and able to export the net food to other countries. The strategy had no impact on the rise of farmers' income and had no provisions for their welfare. Several studies demonstrate that an increase in output should increase a farmer's income, but this was not always true. The Government of India (GoI) has announced in the union budget to double the income of farmers by 2022. Various grass root institutions are existing in India such as self-help groups, farmer's groups, farmer's interest groups, cooperatives, common interest groups, and Farmer Producer Organization (FPO). The GOI has suggested FPO as a tool, In order to mobilize the farmers and bring them under one umbrella to achieve the goal and double the farmers' income. Farmer Producer Organizations offer small and marginal farmers institutional support, assure a stable income for their agricultural output, and ultimately improve their standard of living. The main objective of this paper is to examine the structure of farmers' income in the country and how Farmer producer organizations empower the farmer's income to assess the possibility of enhancing the farmers’ income and discuss the FPO's tools for increasing the farmers’ incomes. The study is based on secondary data and the study is primarily exploratory. This paper addresses the issue of farmers' income and FPOs. This paper is based on 70th and 77th round NSSO Situation Assessment Surveys. The data pertains to the years 2012 and 2018-19. The information was gathered from different secondary sources, such as data on policies and other government sources, including NGOs, National and international management journals, and online sources are included. The study concludes that although boosting farmers' real earnings in six years is a challenging challenge, it may not be entirely unachievable if appropriate techniques are used. The study finds that increases over five to six years in nominal terms are already occurring. The instruments should be multifaceted and focus on increasing returns, lowering costs, and creating sustainable incomes while taking into account the dwindling natural resource base. For tracking the development, we should periodically have access to trustworthy income statistics. The income described in this paper is the gross cost of production. It can be concluded that FPOs form a core part of the strategy to sustain the life of small and marginal farmers out of poverty and enhance their income and competitiveness in agricultural markets. The expected result of this effort is to provide a single window for farmers to increase their income from farm produce through direct marketing and to gain collective bargaining power. So, the purpose of this study is to illustrate how smallholder farmers might raise their income through FPOs, which may help the farmers in doubling their income and empower them.