India’s farmers are mainly small and marginal landholders. On their own, they are disadvantaged when it comes to accessing markets, bank credit and agricultural resources. Tata-Cornell Institute is creating something new.
As the world’s population increases and the demand for agricultural products rises, small farms have an opportunity to play a big role and reap many benefits, if they can join together to form farmer producer organisations (FPOs) to increase their aggregate size. Through FPOs, farmers work collectively to reduce costs, drive productivity and improve market access thereby increasing farm incomes.
Using a data-driven, analytical approach, the FPO Hub of Tata-Cornell Institute Center of Excellence serves as a repository of learnings, information, and knowledge for the advancement of FPOs in India. It features a first-of-its-kind database of Indian FPOs.
The Hub aims to create lessons, tools, and resource pathways to strengthen small farm aggregators while simultaneously catalyzing a community of practice of funders, implementors, and policy stakeholders.
TCI researchers will gauge the results of farmer aggregation globally, highlighting case studies from India and Mexico for comparison, in order to:
- Identify successful and unsuccessful strategies for making FPOs economically sustainable and boosting agricultural growth.
- Assess how FPOs come together to form inclusive agribusiness entities that are integrated into the full production and supply cycle.
- Clarify how FPOs access essential infrastructure and inputs, leverage new marketing opportunities, and reach a wider customer base.
- Evaluate the effect farmer producer organizations have on smallholder market linkages, social/gender inclusion and empowerment, nutrition sensitivity in markets development, and overall welfare.
The Hub is funded through a US$ 1 million grant from the Walmart Foundation.
Database for Indian FPOs
An integral part of the FPO Hub is Tata-Cornell Institute’s Database for Indian FPOs. The database brings together information on thousands of FPOs to facilitate research on small-farm aggregation models. Through the interactive, web-based dashboard, researchers can access a wealth of data, such as crops produced, founding years, and sponsoring agencies.
