Enhancing farmers income through farmers' producers companies in India: Status and roadmap

Abstract

There is a growing optimism that the farmers' organizations can act as a potential driving force for enhancing farmers' income. India has witnessed a positive growth of producer organizations in terms of types of organization, numbers and members. The Producer Company is a special case of producer organization that is registered under Section IXA of the Companies Act, 1956. A need was felt at that time to have an independent farmers’ organization which enables incorporation of producers into such an institution like the companies which will be controlled by them, having welfare and business outlook at a time while not compromising the sustainability issues. That creates the milieu for the genesis of Farmers’ Producer Company (FPC) in India. The FPCs are fundamentally farmer-owned and farmer-governed micro-enterprises which can be considered as hybrids between cooperative societies and private companies. The way of participation, membership and organization is similar to that of a cooperative, while the incorporation into corporate law allows greater flexibility and professionalism in their business actions. Till date 1048 FPCs are registered in India. In this article attempt has been made to review the issues of FPC, current status and future prospects. Forecasting the growth of FPC has been done up to the year 2020 utilizing Grey Model. Emphasis has been given to critically analyse the status, prospects and potentials with future outlook of 2020 concluding with strategies and policy needs.