Women’s Participation in Farmer Producer Organisations
Women’s Participation in Farmer Producer Organisations
The Government of India is implementing the Central Sector Scheme for “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)” scheme to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs. As on 22.07.2024, 10,000 FPOs have been allocated to 14 Implementing Agencies (IAs) out of which 8780 FPOs have been registered across the country. The state-wise number of FPOs registered is given below:
State/ UT wise number of FPOs registered under 10,000 FPOs scheme
Sr.No
States/ Union union territories
No. of FPOs registered
1
Andaman & Nicobar
7
2
Andhra Pradesh
449
3
Arunachal Pradesh
150
4
Assam
427
5
Bihar
577
6
Chhattisgarh
208
7
Dadra Nagar Haveli
2
8
Goa
59
9
Gujarat
393
10
Haryana
161
11
Himachal Pradesh
201
12
Jammu & Kashmir
282
13
Jharkhand
335
14
Karnataka
327
15
Kerala
113
16
Ladakh
3
17
Lakshadweep
1
18
Madhya Pradesh
614
19
Maharashtra
579
20
Manipur
76
21
Meghalaya
55
22
Mizoram
49
23
Nagaland
87
24
Odisha
448
25
Puducherry
6
26
Punjab
136
27
Rajasthan
526
28
Sikkim
13
29
Tamil Nadu
413
30
Telangana
302
31
Tripura
59
32
Uttar Pradesh
1,237
33
Uttarakhand
141
34
West Bengal
344
Grand Total
8,780
The provisions have been made in the operational guidelines of 10,000 FPOs scheme to increase women’s participation in FPOs. As per the clause 4.4 of the operational guideline of the “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” scheme, FPO provide special focus to include small, marginal and women farmers/women SHGs, SC/ST farmers and other economically weaker categories etc. as members to make FPOs more effective and inclusive. Further, as per clause 11.3 of the operational guideline, in the Board of Director (BoD) and Governing Body (GB) as the case may be , there shall be adequate representation of women farmer member (s) and there should be minimum one women member.
As on 22.07.2024, 810 FPOs have been registered as 100 percent women members FPOs under the said scheme. Besides this, out of overall registration of 19,82,835 farmers in FPOs 6,86,665 are women farmers.
379 FPOs formed under “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” scheme are working on the One District and One Product (ODOP) initiative. The state-wise number of FPOs working on the ODOP initiative is given below:
State-wise no. of FPOs working on the ODOP initiative
States/ UTs
No. of FPOs working on ODOP initiative
Andhra Pradesh
7
Arunachal Pradesh
16
Assam
29
Bihar
51
Chhattisgarh
1
Gujarat
13
Himachal Pradesh
1
Jammu and Kashmir
28
Jharkhand
1
Karnataka
8
Kerala
9
Ladakh
1
Madhya Pradesh
40
Maharashtra
38
Manipur
16
Meghalaya
12
Nagaland
19
Odisha
23
Punjab
2
Rajasthan
1
Tamil Nadu
14
Telangana
37
Tripura
5
Uttar Pradesh
5
West Bengal
2
Grand Total
379
This information was given by the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.