Producer Companies Research Articles

Issues and challenges faced by the members of fish farmer producer companies (FFPCs) of Assam, India

Issues and challenges faced by the members of fish farmer producer companies (FFPCs) of Assam, India

Marketing of Mango: Perceived Constraints During Normality and due to Lockdown in West Bengal

The study was undertaken to assess the perceived constraints in marketing of mango duringnormality and due to lockdown in West Bengal. In all, 90 respondents were randomlyconsidered for the study with equal proportionate of small, medium and large farmers.The perceived constraints faced and suggestions in improving the marketing of mangoeswere analyzed through Garrett ranking techniques. The study shows that the majorperceived constraints in marketing of mangoes during normality were high fluctuation inmarket price during season followed by inadequate marketing channel and exploitation bymiddlemen. But during the lockdown, the major perceived constraints were no market tosell their mangoes followed by exploitation by middlemen and small opening hours ofmarket. The suggestive measures recommended by the mango growers to improve marketingopportunities were stable market rate according to grade of mangoes followed by propermarketing channel and elimination of middlemen. The mangoes growers had not felt needfor cooperative marketing network or formation of Farmer Producer Company for itsmarketing.

Training Need Assessment of Board of Directors of Farmer Producer Companies: An Application of Borich’s Model

In India, small and marginal farmers face numerous technological and institutional issues to realize the actual worth of their farm produce. To overcome such vagaries of agriculture, the collectivization of agri-producers into farmer producer companies has emerged as a potential approach to boost the bargaining power and scaling up the production process. The prime operational issues in FPCs are the result of both the limited resource availability and the capacity deficit of the governing members. Thus, a descriptive study was conducted during 2021-2022 to probe into the training needs of the Board of Directors (BoD) of FPCs in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Three FPCs were randomly selected from each of the 28 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, and from each selected FPC, one BoD was interviewed. Based on Borich’s need assessment model the perceived level of training need was accessed for the respondents in 34 different core training areas under 7 major domains with a standardized interview schedule. The training needs were analyzed and ranked based on the mean weighted discrepancy scores. Some of the most prioritized training areas included strategic planning for FPC activities, preparation of business plan, and financial aspects of business plan etc.

Knowledge Level of Smallholder Woman Farmers of Poultry Producer Company in Madhya Pradesh

The poultry producer companies provide trainings and extension services to their members. The present study was conducted in 2021-22 in Madhya Pradesh state to assess the impact of poultry Producer Company on knowledge level of smallholder women poultry farmers of company. Ex-post facto research design was used. Multistage sampling was done for the selection of respondents. Data was collected from randomly selected, 140 members and 140 non-members, through a structured interview schedule. Propensity score matching was applied at 0.2 tolerance level, to reduce extraneous variable effect and finally 96 members and 96 non-members respondents were selected for data analysis and interpretation of results. The majority of the members had medium to a high level of knowledge of poultry housing, brooding, litter management and feeding while medium to low level of knowledge of healthcare management, whereas, most non-members had a medium to low level of knowledge of poultry housing, litter management, feeding, and healthcare, and medium to high level of knowledge of brooding. There was a significant difference in knowledge of members and non-members at 0.1% level of significance regarding housing, litter management, and feeding and interpreted as poultry producer company had positive impact on knowledge of member poultry farmers.

Empowering Farmers with Blockchain-based Transparency Throughout the Value Chain

Majority of the Indian farmers growing diverse local crops and traditional cultivars are small small-landholding farmer. Lower yields and challenges to find a value chain are accentuated by the effects of climate change. Since 2003, a new provision has been made available to farmers to come together and form ‘Farmer Producer Organization’ and ‘Farmer Producer Company’, in which farmers themselves are shareholders and external entities aren’t allowed to become investors. Currently, there are 7,000 such registered groups in India, and it’s being hailed as a promising step towards farmer liberation. Many farmer collectives, especially Farmer Producer Companies, are eagerly adopting emerging technologies for their operations, scaling, value-chain integration, and marketing purposes. This paper will seek to explore a case study of India’s largest farmer collective of fruits and vegetables regarding their usage of Blockchain technology in bringing transparency and efficiency across their integrated value chain.

Assessing Performance of Fish Farmer Producer Company in Dakshin Dinajpur, West Bengal

The present study is aimed at assessing the performance of a Fish Farmers Producers Company ofDakshin Dinajpur district, West Bengal. Bhuihara Farmers Producer Company Limited with 551 membership base and having been established three years ago was selected. The overall performance score of the FFPC worked out based on Mukherjee (2018) scale was found to be 6.92. Technical efficiency score of the fish farmers, calculated following Coelli (1996) was found to be> 0.75. The analysis indicates that fish farmers can, on an average, increase their output by 25%, operating at the best scale possible and eliminating pure technical inefficiencies by implementing the most effective farming methods. According to the study, the biggest issue with overall technical inefficiency can be resolved by addressing the issue with pure technical efficiency. Skill gap and thereby training needs were identified by working out Mean Weighted Discrepancy Score. The highest training needs were in fish seed production & hatchery management skills (MWDS = 11.25), live fish handling and quality assessment skills (MWDS = 10 .12 ), pond hazard management skills (MWDS = 9.92), farm business and record keeping (MWDS = 9.2) and pest and disease management skill (MWDS = 9 .16).

EFFORTS TO REDUCE THE RISK OF DEFECTS OF MINICAB PRODUCTS TYPE MSM 2230 IN ASSEMBLING PROCESS WITH FAILURE MODE EFFECT AND ANALYSIS METHOD


 Indospring Tbk, is a spring producer company of two types, namely leaf springs and coil springs. Based on the results of the data obtained from the assembling process at PT. Indospring, Tbk that there are still high defects or product incompatibility, especially Minicab type MSM 2230 with 290 types of defects for 3 months (January 2021 - March 2021) with a percentage of 18.59%. The purpose of this research is to find out the types of Minicab MSM 2230 defects in the assembly line process, to find out the factors that cause defects problems, to provide benefits as knowledge and considerations to improve quality by correcting the causes of product defects. In finding the cause of product defects and their impact using the Failure Mode Effect and Analysis (FMEA) method. During the period from January to March 2021, before repairing the average defect, koba defects 17.33, scratch 20, eye forming defects 4.33, half span NG 15.33, eccentricity out spec 2, taper NG 11.66, pieces NG, 18 .66, EF gap narrowed 0.66, crack 6.66. Based on Failure Mode Effect Analysis, scratch has the highest Risk Priority Number value, which is 324 with a value of 9 on severity, 6 on occurrence and 6 on detection. The results of brainstorming factors that cause defect scratch, namely the product testing process is often dragged down due to speeding up the production flow, during the after tempering process the operator is wrong in the arrangement on the rack / pallet, and it can also be that the material from the supplier is already scratched. So that the highest defect will be the main priority for immediate repairs.
 

Effect of two organic fertilizers on some anatomical features of Pinus pinea L. seedlings grown in field and lathe house

Effect of two organic fertilizers on some anatomical features of Pinus pinea L. seedlings grown in field and lathe house

A study on the growth, status and distribution of farmer producer organisations in West Bengal

Farmer Producer Organisations or Companies have gained immense popularity in the last few years for its success based upon collective action approaches. Pooling of resources presents numerous opportunities for the farmers as it smoothens the marketing process by eliminating the middlemen from the market, establishes direct contact with consumers and producers, help the farmers to get more than the remunerative price. Besides that, it presents farming as an enterprise to the farmers rather than a subsistence way of living. The Government of India has approved and launched the Central Sector Scheme of “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs till 2027-28 with a total budgetary outlay of Rs.6865 Cr. Initially one FPO is allocated per block. So far, a total of 4465 new FPOs produce clusters have been allocated to Implementing Agencies for formation of FPOs, of which a total of 632 no. of FPOs have been registered. In West Bengal, the first FPO established in 2012 under SFAC in Nadia district followed by another FPO in Birbhum district in the same year. Since then a total of 151 FPOs under NABARD and 89 FPOs under SFAC have been established so far. Hence, this study was carried out in 2021 to study the present status and growth of FPOs in West Bengal. The compound annual growth rate of FPOs under NABARD and SFAC has been calculated. Also, the distribution of FPOs across the state was analysed. It was found that 63% FPOs comes under NABARD whereas 37% FPOs comes under SFAC. NABARD has identified several districts and blocks for further expansion of the FPOs.

Is the marine finfish cage farming value chain in Cambodia inclusive?

We undertook a gendered value chain analysis of marine finfish cage farming in Cambodia, interviewing 50 farmers and 11 other value chain participants, focussing on one of the key social concerns: inclusivity. The study used a modified participatory value chain mapping approach starting with the production/farming unit (household or a small producer company) and then ‘snowballing’ up and down the value chain. We specifically targeted participation of women, youths and minorities. The results showed that women and men were represented equally in several value chain nodes, namely: farmers, farm materials suppliers, and traders with special orders. Middle-aged men predominated as wholesalers and fingerlings traders, while women were predominant as ‘trash’ fish traders and local market traders of farmed fish. Only men, of all ages, were reported as fishers for the ‘trash’ fish supply. Youths of both sexes were present in feed (fishing or trading) nodes, and several of the local market traders were young women. In terms of the farming and the farm materials nodes, youths were present as offspring who were in the process of taking over the business over from the parents. This appears to be one of the few opportunities for youths to enter marine finfish cage farming, because the cost of farm establishment and selection of suitable farming sites were identified as barriers to entry to this industry. We found that most farms were perceived as being family owned, in contrast to literature reports that mariculture farmers as predominantly men. Our findings reinforce that information on inclusivity in aquaculture value chains is essential to planning any interventions aimed at improving returns and increasing efficiency.

Assessment of Profile Characteristics and Factors Determining the Membership of Farmers in Tamil Nadu Banana Producer Company (TNBPC) a Study in Trichy district of Tamil Nadu

The majority of Indian farmers face issues such as decreased agricultural production, lower resource use efficiency, and lower farm revenue. Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) which are based on the concepts of economies of scale and collective action, have arisen as a golden ray of hope for alleviating these challenges. In light of these facts, the present study was carried out to examine socio-personal, socio-economic, socio-psychological characteristics and the factors determining their membership with the sample respondents of 132. The sample was selected through proportionate random sampling from five villages of Thottiyam block in Trichy district of Tamil Nadu. The findings revealed that majority of the farmers were middle aged with most of the members having been educated and medium level of annual income. Farming was the primary occupation for majority of the members with big farm size and medium level of annual income, farmer groups experience, training, institutional support and extension agency contact. There also exists medium level of market perception, group interaction, group leadership, self -confidence, attitude towards group activity, participation in group activities, achievement motivation and group cohesiveness. The findings also revealed that getting better price for their produce was the major economic factor determining their membership followed by participatory decision making as the major social factor, to make use of government schemes as major organizational factor and providing market linkages as the major marketing factor determining their membership. FPO operations must be promoted and supported in order to instill competition among farmers and raise their share and profit in agricultural enterprises.

A Study on Factors Influencing Farmer Satisfaction with the Services of Farmer Producer Companies in Western Districts of Tamil Nadu

In order to establish policies and programmes that meet the requirements of small and marginal farmers, it is necessary to assess farmers' satisfaction with the quality of services provided by the Farmer Producer Companies. Main aim of this study was to figure out what characteristics influence farmers' satisfaction with the services provided by the Farmer Producer Companies. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data from a sample of 200 farmer members of Farmer Producer Companies in the western region of Tamil Nadu. Descriptive statistics, Likert scaling technique and a logistic-regression model were used to analyse the data. The results showed that farmers had highest level of satisfaction for the items like Norms, rules and regulations in joining the FPC with a mean of 4.22 and were less satisfied with the statement financial support rendered by the FPC to its members with a mean score of 1.88. The results of the binary logistic regression model revealed that education, farm size, farming experience and membership period positively influenced the farmer satisfaction in the service provided by the Farmer Producer Companies; but as age of the farmers increased, overall farmers satisfaction with the services provided by the FPCs decreased. The results also showed that variables like annual income, family type and crop diversity were not significant predictors of satisfaction. Results of this study would be helpful to identify and overcome the shortfalls in the existing activities and services rendered by the Farmer Producer Companies.

Blockchain Technology in Agriculture

The World Economic Forum marked Blockchain technology (BCT) as one of the seven revolutionary technologies of the future. It is a distributed ledger system ensuring transparency, security, immutability, interoperability, and provenance. This article tries to understand the technological aspects, working mechanism and explore different areas where BCT can be applied in agriculture. Data in BCT is stored in a series of blocks contains the hash value (previous and the current), timestamp, and difficulty details, secured cryptographically with a symmetric or asymmetric digital signature to avoid data tampering and fraud. Traceability (supply chain), using Smart contracts (in Agricultural insurance, Crop finance, Land records) achieved by the BCT and the companies (Carrefour, Trace harvest), states (Telangana, Andhra Pradesh), and countries (Kenya, European Union) practicing are discussed. The Farmer producer company- Sahyadri farms keen implementation of blockchain fetched benefits to farmers amid Covid times. Finally, addressing the barriers in practicing the BCT in India- Technology maturity, energy cost, and education. The massive potential of BCT is yet untapped, to reach up to the farmer level, which will flourish in the coming years.

Determinants of Smallholders’ Participation in Farmer Producer Companies–Insights from West Bengal, India

Determinants of Smallholders’ Participation in Farmer Producer Companies–Insights from West Bengal, India

Impact of motivation and job satisfaction on turnover: A case study of food additives producer Company

In the current working environment, employee turnover focused as the main issue found in almost many organizations. Employees are the key to a company's productions and services. When employees are taken good care of by focusing on their needs, they will bring up the company’s performance. However, the increasing percentage of employee turnover makes the company pay more attention to motivation and job satisfaction. Thus, an organization strongly thinks that employee motivation and job satisfaction should reduce the employee turnover rate. This action research was conducted to analyze the current factors influencing motivation and job satisfaction that brings to turnover intention. This research also suggests professional leadership training as a planned intervention towards this company. This research was focused on estimating the outcome of the planned intervention to reduce employee turnover intention in the Company. This action research study was conducted using two frameworks which are Social Exchange Theory and Theory Planned Behaviors. The methodology used in this research was a mixed-method approach by taking two interviews with managers (Qualitative approach), while a questionnaire survey (Quantitative Approach) was conducted with 35 respondents. Thematic Analysis and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) were utilized to analyze the data. Before the intervention, motivation and job satisfaction among employees were evaluated as low, and turnover intention was high based on an interview with managers and pre-survey results. The positive effects of the professional leadership training as intervention organized in the Company initiated are notable in thematic analysis and post-training survey results retrieved from employees. Based on the research, professional leadership training will be recommended for future researchers.

Institutional Innovations in India: An Assessment of Producer Companies as New-Generation Co-operative Companies

There are many types of innovations such as technological, social, product, process, marketing and organizational, and institutional innovation is one type. The producer companies (PCs), which are a case of legal institutional innovation in the Indian domain of primary producer organization are more market-oriented co-operative companies and can help farmers buy and sell more effectively. They have gained currency across India during the past 15 years since the amendment to the Companies Act made this possible in 2003, and India now has thousands of such PCs, with many of them being supported by state agencies. This article examines the uniqueness of these entities as an institutional form wherein principles of co-operation and corporate entity have been combined so that they could be more relevant entities in a globalized and liberalized market environment. It discusses their competitive edge over other forms of producer organizations like co-operative societies in India and farmer companies in Sri Lanka, and new-generation co-operatives in other parts of the world. After discussing some innovations in their governance and management, it concludes by making suggestions for augmenting this institutional innovation for inclusive and sustainable agricultural and rural development.

Financial Performance of Farmer Producer Companies of India: A Study from 2013–2014 to 2018–2019

The prime objective of the study is to analyse and evaluate the financial performance of the FPCs in India. Financial ratios, trend analysis and grey relational analysis (GRA) were the tools used to achieve this objective. The present study analysed the financial performance of 83 FPCs in India from 2013–2014 to 2018–2019. The liquidity position of the FPCs was found to be above satisfactory levels. The solvency position of the FPCs was found to be improving as they were shifting from debt financing to equity financing. The efficiency and profitability positions of the FPCs were below par. Almost one-third of the FPCs were loss-making in 2018–2019. Using GRA, ‘Howrah Agro Producer Company’ from West Bengal was found to be the best performing FPC among the select 83 FPCs. The solvency position of the FPCs was found to have a strong positive association with the overall financial performance of the FPCs. The study also proposed financial ratio benchmarks for the FPCs using quartiles. The present study finally proposes to incorporate ‘second-class shareholders’ into the FPC model. These shareholders would have limited rights and voting power, and they would provide FPCs with capital, marketing channels and managerial support.

Building members' trust in a producer company through social capital

PurposeThe paper contributes to the long-standing interest in studying the relationship of social capital and trust. It examines the relationship between social capital and trust in a producer company and the role of perceived benefits as a mediating variable.Design/methodology/approachA multistage sampling was done to collect data from 395 farmer members from five producer companies spread over three states of India. Through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) latent constructs were mapped, and composite reliability and construct validity were established. PROCESS macro of Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) was used to probe relationship between social capital and member's trust and mediation effect of perceived benefit.FindingsThe authors’ research findings establish that the social capital has a positive and significant relationship with members' trust in a producer company and perceived benefit mediates this relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper contributes to reduce complexity of social capital theory by differentiating sources and benefits of social capital. It opens up the avenues of testing theoretically valid mediation effects of many other constructs.Originality/valueThe role of member's perceived benefits as a mediator between social capital and members' trust is a new knowledge to the literature of social capital.

Factors Contributing to the Performance of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) – a Study in Medak District of Telangana State

A study was conducted on the performance of FPOs and the factors contributing to performance of FPOs in Medak district of Telangana State, India. Three FPOs were selected randomly from 3 different promoting institutes viz., Suraksha Farmers Producer Company Ltd (SFPCL) promoted by independent research organization Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), Marpalli Kisan Kranthi Producer Company Ltd (MKKPCL) promoted by Vrutti NGO and Siddipet Kisan Agro Farmers Producer Company Ltd (SKAFPCL) promoted by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study with a sample of 90 producer members, covering three FPOs in erstwhile Medak district of Telangana State. From the analysis, it was found that overall performance of FPOs in Medak district was average to poor. The factors viz., education, group leadership, group communication, adherence to rules, group participation, and team spirit had showed positive and significant relationship with performance. The results of regression analysis inferred that all the selected twelve factors put together explained the variation to the extent of 72.47% in the performance of the FPO with leadership of officials and participation of members contributing significantly to the performance of FPOs.

Farmer Producer Companies of Kerala: Group Dynamics Assessment of Shareholders

The study focuses on the group dynamics of shareholders in the selected FPCs (Farmer Producer Companies) of Idukki district, Kerala. A sample of 120 respondents among 13 FPCs was identified using proportionate random sampling. Results of the study indicate that majority of the shareholders in the selected FPCs exhibited a low to medium group dynamics and shareholders of four FPCs exhibited a high level of group dynamics. But the variation of GDI (Group Dynamics Index) among companies also point that some firms have better intra-group understanding and exhibit higher degree of group cohesiveness and team work along with a favourable attitude towards the management which caters to a smooth decision making procedure. Principal component analysis of the selected indicators revealed that decision making procedure and team work has a significant effect on variance of the GDI.