10,000 FPOs Is Not Too Many

The government's ambitious scheme to create 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOS), initiated in 2020 with an allocation of ₹6,865 crore, has achieved its target - at least numerically, and on paper.

- SURINDER SUD

The Ami-Gramvikas FPO, registered in Khagaria (Bihar) on February 24, has become the 10,000th FPO under this programme. If the FPOS set up earlier, and outside this central-sector scheme, are also taken into account, the tally of such grassroots-level rural business enterprises amounts to over 44,400. However, not all of them are doing well. Many are struggling for survival because of issues on commercial viability, or exist only in records. Yet, the net count of successful FPOS is fairly large. Some of the well-managed ones are reporting annual turnovers of over ₹1 crore, which, given the small-scale ecosystem in which they operate, can be deemed akin to the unicorns among the startups in the other sectors. Around three million farmers are estimated to be associated with these bodies. Nearly 40 per cent of them are women.