Agriculture is the backbone of the economic system of India. Necessary for every sector with its supply of raw materials, it helps provide employment opportunities to a huge section of the population. However, it can also push a generation to deprivation if they are continuously engaged in loss making agriculture. To combat this, FPCs have become mainstream in recent years. Jaivik Sri is one such Farmer Producer Company which is transforming farming into a profitable business.
Based in the Koraput District of Odisha, India, Jaivik Sri Farmers Producer Company (JSFPCL) is a growing organisation that aims to uplift the farmer community in Odisha. This FPC was incorporated on May 18, 2016. Since its inception, it has been actively working with farmers of different villages in the Koraput district to promote Agribusiness in the area.
Support at the grass roots
The FPC was started with a vision to help secure the livelihoods of the poor and marginalised households of Koraput District and to overall help increase the standard of living. In addition to that, the mission is to improve family income of the farmers through enhanced productivity by implementing modern technologies and machineries, while also fulfilling the members’ financial needs, and engaging in collective trade and processing.
In the last 5-6 years that it has been active, Jaivik Sri was able to gain the trust of more than one thousand farmers who are now working with the FPC. It has has been supporting the grass-root level farmers by providing them with different agricultural seeds, organic inputs etc.
Jaivik Sri FPC has proved its success in production and marketing of millets as it is implementing the Special Programme for Promotion of Millets in Tribal areas of Odisha supported by Odisha Millet Mission in Nandapur Block of Koraput District since June 2017. The FPC has promoted System of Millet Intensification for 5335 farmers. The farmers were provided with quality seeds, trainings and on field support for adoption of improved package of practices. With the introduction of Minimum Support Price, an opportunity was created for marketing of millets to ensure judicious price for the farmers.
Moreover the FPC also provides marketing facilities for the small farmers so that they can get the best prices for their products, with that they also help to provide processing services to the agricultural outputs.
Jaivik Sri FPC has promoted System of Rice Intensification for 12000 farmers in Koraput and Nowrangpur District. The farmers are provided input support like seeds which include indigenous and stress tolerant varieties, black rice, red rice etc, organic manure kits and weeders. The FPC has helped the farmers in aggregation and collective marketing of aromatic and medicinal varieties of rice through value addition. Due to value addition of aromatic and medicinal varieties of rice, the farmers could get additional income of 40% in comparison to the minimum support price fixed by Government. More and more farmers are being encouraged to adopt indigenous, aromatic and medicinal rice varieties.
The FPC has currently 1513 farmers, out of which 1325 are male and the remaining are female. It covers 70 villages in the Koraput District. Along with that it also covers 26 Gram Panchayats. There are currently 11 staff members working with the FPC with four directors associated with the organisation – Tankhadur Mukhi, Tilak Jani, Surendra Masti and Trinath Patro.
Sustainable roadmap
As for future plans and objectives for the next three years, Tankhadur says, “One of the main goals for the future is to promote the FPC by building the membership of the organisation. We look forward to build a membership base of 3000 members with a cumulative share capital of Rs 10, 00,000 with a share value of Rs 100 each.”
This FPC is also working towards facilitating credit and other input services to members, such as seed, manure, and upgraded machinery. Tilak adds, “The FPC hopes to provide credit services to 600 members, with a recovery rate of 99 per cent. In addition, the FPC would also provide seed and manure support to 3000 members, as well as improve their access to modernised upgraded machinery for 20% of members from government departments like Agriculture and Horticulture, at no service charge.”
Elucidating on processing and value addition, Surendra shares, “We wish to establish our footing in purchasing, processing and marketing of cashews, paddy, millet and tamarind. JSFPC will purchase 500 quintals of cashew shells. The FPC will also procure and value add i.e. packaging and branding and sell 900 quintals of tamarind, 900 quintals of rice and 1200 quintals of millets cumulatively by 2023-24.”
The FPC aims at sales and purchases of cashew, tamarind, millets, and paddy at the FPC level. Discussing Collective Trading, it expects to cumulatively purchase these crops in large amounts. Trinath sums up, “The FPC will moreover help our members market 600 MT of vegetables by the year 2023-24 by establishing a connection with bigger buyers like eNam, Mandi, Hostels, Reserve battalion camps, along with wholesalers in exchange for a service fee.”
Jaivik Sri FPC has also started promotion of green energy for reducing use of fossil fuels through creation of market for solar pumps and solar home lighting systems. More than 100 farmers have started using solar pumps and replaced diesel powered pumps. Home lighting systems are marketed through easy monthly instalments. The FPC has a tie up with Kalinga Renewable Energy
Products, a start up from IIT Bhubaneswar for promotion of solar technology. The company has created a cadre of service providers to support consumers in installation and maintenance of solar systems.
Jaivik Sri FPC has received the Krishi Alert award for its contribution in Sustainable Agriculture and Organic farming, which is jointly awarded by ICAR, APEDA and NITI Aayog.
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