Determinants of business performance and challenges faced by the farmer producer organizations (FPOs) in India

Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) is believed to improve the livelihood of farmers by collectivizing them for input purchase and providing forward linkage. Survival and then business scaling-up and expansion are considered to be the goals of FPO. In order to understand the determinants of business performance and the challenges faced by the FPO, the study has been undertaken by surveying 125 FPOs of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. It is found that most of the FPOs are engaged in input supply as the only business activity. Members number, BoD size and years of existence are found to be the determinants of paid-up capital of FPO. Paid-up capital is found to be significant predictor of turnover of FPO. Capital requirement is found to be the biggest challenge by the FPO.