Impact of Farmer Producer Companies on Marginal and Small Farmers: A Study of Osmanabad District of Maharashtra, India

Abstract

The concept of a farmer producer company (FPC) has emerged as an inclusive concept to address the issues of farmers, especially, small, and marginal farmers. The present study is to examine the impact of farmer producer companies on small and marginal farmers. 150 small and marginal farmers were chosen through multi-stage stratified random sampling in the Osmanabad district of Maharashtra state, India to assess the impact. It was found that the farmers organized under FPCs in the study area are not getting adequate support from the FPCs. It was also found that services provided by FPCs like marketing, value addition, technological services and pre-harvest services were satisfactory, while agricultural advisory services, capacity building and credit access services were poor. A model ACITM (Agriculture Advisory, Capacity Building, Technological and Marketing Services) is suggested to be executed by the FPCDN (Farmer Producer Companies Development Network) – a development network consortium for addressing FPCs problems and strengthening the FPCs.