District level meeting regarding State-wide Awareness Campaign on Promotion of Farmers Producers Organisations in Punjab held

Ludhiana, February 2, 2019: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Punjab Regional Office today organised a District level meeting of FPO awareness camps in Ludhiana at Hotel Friends Regency in which Sh.Parveen Bhatia, DDM Ludhiana, Anil Kumar, Lead Bank manager, Dr. R.K. Singh, Director, CIPHET, ICAR, Dr.H. K.Verma, Director Extension Education GADVASU, Dr. Dharminder Singh, PAU, Dr.Y.S.Pandha, P.A.U., Dr.Harmeet Kaur, PAMETI , Dr. Jaspreet Singh Khera, ATMA, Department of Agriculture, S.Ratan Singh Ex Director, PNB, FTC, Sirhind, Dr Tewari from KVK, Bank District coordinators from P.N.B, U.C.O, Indian Bank, SBI, Coop. Bank, O.B.C. and other officers participated.
Sh Parveen Bhatia informed that National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Punjab Regional Office had organised a function in Pal Auditorium of Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana to launch a state-wide Awareness Campaign on promotion of Farmers Producers Organisations in Punjab on December 27, 2018 at Ludhiana. The campaign was formally launched by Governor Punjab, Mr V P Singh Badnore.
Further he informed that NABARD has demonstrated that farmers’ collectives, especially comprising of small and marginal farmers, in the form of Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) can be effective in enhancing farmers’ income and boosting the agriculture growth. These FPOs are being promoted in a cluster mode in a big way all over the country through coordinated efforts of all the stakeholders like NABARD, Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, GoI, State Government and other partner agencies. In this regard, a focussed programme is being implemented by NABARD through dedicated financial support for promotion and financing of FPOs in the country. NABARD has so far promoted 4,004 FPOs across 29 states out of which 91 FPOs are in state of Punjab.
Dr. R.K. Singh, Director, CIPHET informed that to maximise profitability from farming, the traditional way of individualistic farming needed to shift towards a collective mode. He informed that now production is stabilised and there is need of post-harvest management. Dr.H. K.Verma, Director Extension Education GADVASU, explained the role of GADVASU extension department and alternate professions of goatery, piggery and dairy.
Among the participants, Producer Organisation Promoting Institutes (POPIs), Global Self Help Group FPO Smt Gurdev Kaur told her journeys, struggles and achievements of FPOs.
Sh Parveen Bhatia highlighted NABARD’s journey in promotion of FPOs and informed that NABARD has decided to promote FPOs in a big way in the potential sectors and areas of the State. Sensitisation of farmers through information dissemination and awareness creation is important for making any programme a success. Thus, NABARD has embarked upon to launch a State-wide awareness campaign on FPO promotion in Punjab during 2018-19. Around 3000 programmes will be held in cluster of 2-3 villages each in all districts of the State. Through this campaign, the dual objectives of motivating farmers to organize themselves into FPOs and achieving synergies and convergence amongst various stakeholders is envisaged. It was further informed by Sh Parveen Bhatia that 220 Village level programmes will be held in District Ludhiana to promote FPOs.