Ranchi, Jharkhand | September | Saturday | 19, 2015 :: The Union Budget 2014-15 announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has a prominent focus on agriculture. This article deals with the announcement of the setting up of Producers Development and Upliftment Corpus PRODUCE of Rs. 200 crore under the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development NABARD to develop 2000 Producers organization in 02 years across the country.
A state level workshop on Producer Organisation (PO) under PRODUCE scheme was convened on 19.09.2015 in NABARD, Jharkhand Regional Office, Ranchi in order to accelerate various activities envisage under the scheme and finalize future roadmap for the same. The meeting was presided over by S. Mandal, CGM, NABARD, Jharkhand Regional Office, and he in his introductory address indicated the rationale behind Producer Organisation, objectives of PRODUCE Scheme and roles and responsibilities of Producer Organisation Promoting Institutions (POPIs). Over 50 Representatives from different NGOs, KVKs and cooperative federations attended the said workshop. CGM explained role of NGOs, who acts as Producer Organisation Promoting Institutions (POPIs) viz. awareness creation among farmers and motivate them to formfarmer Producer Organisation(FPOs), undertaking training need assessments of the producers, assessing infrastructure requirements, market intervention and other support facilities/ linkages necessary for the success of FPOs, establishing and registering under appropriate Act, facilitating in credit and market linkages, developing business plans, etc. ultimately leading to higher productivity and production resulting rise in their income and private capital formation. The participants provided valuable information/ data on the scope and potential available for formation of Producers’ Organisation in their respective areas of operation. Some of the concepts emerged at the end of the meeting.
