April 2020, South Asia
Unshackling Farmer Producer Organisations from the COVID – 19 Lockdown
Dr Vinayak Nikam and Dr Rajiv Kale

If empowered, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) can address market disruptions in the wake of pandemics like COVID-19. In this blog, Dr Vinayak Nikam and Dr Rajiv Kale examine the roles played by different FPOs in dealing with the challenges.  

The COVID-19 crisis in India has left unharvested farm produce to rot in farmers’ fields, collapsed supply chains and disturbed the transport network.  In times of lockdown, farmers are finding it difficult to sell farm produce sans buyers, while urban consumers are either facing scarcity or are forced to pay a high rate for farm goods. Governments are looking towards Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) to be a link between producers and consumers by aggregating the produce of member farmers, collectively transporting them for sale in urban establishments. While many FPOs have come forward to operate during the COVID-19 crisis by procuring and marketing farmers’ produce, and giving farmers the much needed income in this hour, their operations are not without struggles. Labour and input shortages, infrastructure bottlenecks and sometimes uncooperative local administrations prevent them from carrying out activities for the benefit of farmers and consumers. These constraints forced some of the FPOs to stop their supply chain operations.