A Functional Analysis of Extension and Advisory Services Offered by Farmer Producer Organisation in Tribal Region of Odisha

The Government of India has set a target of establishment and promotion of ten thousand new Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) by 2027-28. Thus, comprehensive analysis of Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) offered by FPOs that have already worked for years at the grassroot level may generate crucial inputs for the budding FPOs. Therefore, a study was conducted to analyse the EAS offered by Kandhamal Apex Spices Association for Marketing (KASAM), an FPO operational since 1998 in tribal region of Odisha with a membership of over 11,000 farmers. The representatives of twenty-two producers’ groups associated with KASAM were interviewed using a structured interview schedule prepared based on Birner’s best fit framework for designing and analysing agro-advisory services. The overall performance was assessed against the criteria of functional advisory services proposed by Prager (2017) with modifications. Results revealed that KASAM performed well on indicators such as linkage with various extension and research organisations, frequency of training, coverage of major advisory services and major crops, but its performance was not satisfactory in terms of use of a wide range of advisory methods, coverage of all client groups, and infrastructure for EAS provision. Hence, the study recommends the FPO to use of wide range of effective advisory methods, targeting the women farmers and rural youth, and establishing basic infrastructure facility like training halls, own office buildings for farmers’ groups, etc. The case of KASAM also shows that government’s vision of commodity-specific, market-driven, cluster based, and FPO-led extension strategy has the potential of yielding great outcomes.