Farmer Producer Company: India’s Magic Bullet to Realise Select SDGs?

Abstract

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) are designed for the betterment of the underprivileged and the marginalised. Some of the sub-goals target doubling agricultural productivity and incomes of the small-scale food producers to realise the SDGs. Access to land, technology, inputs and financial services, opportunities for value addition and markets, non-farm employment and effective and transparent institutions that ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels are assumed to be the means to that end. Based on the Alagh Committee report’s recommendations, to address the voids in the existing form of collectives, producer company as a new legal option was introduced in 2003 by amending the Companies Act. This new form of collective is expected to combine efficiency and professional management of the company form and the cooperative principles necessitating ownership and participation of and governance by producers. This study takes a mixed-method approach. It qualitatively inquires about member’s perception of roles farmer producer companies (FPCs) play in their lives and livelihood. With the help of performance data from five FPCs, this study elaborates on the promises this form holds in realising some of the SDGs and challenges FPCs facing that could make achieving these promises a distant dream.