Farmer Producer Companies in Uttar Pradesh - A Community Perception

The idea of Farmer Producer Company was taken up for wider promotion by Uttar Pradesh Bhumi Sudhar Nigam under the Uttar Pradesh Sodic Lands Reclamation III Project. Till date, 101 farmer producer companies have been promoted under the project. The current study is based on the study of 18 such farmer producer companies. Findings reveal that all the 18 companies are fully functional and are constantly progressing in their mandated activities. Companies have started input and output transactions. From amongst the members of farmer producer companies, about 37 percent of paddy farmers and 32 percent wheat farmers sold paddy/wheat through the farmer producer companies. The percentage is low because only five out of 18 companies have got the mandi license so far. Such percentage is expected to increase considerably once all the companies get mandi licenses and start full-fledged output marketing. About 20-25 percent of members purchased paddy/wheat seed from the farmer producer companies whereas about 85 percent of them procured urea and DAP from the producer companies. Similarly, FPC was the main source of purchase of MOP, zinc, and pesticides also as 71-79 percent FPC members purchased these items from this source. There is huge potential to expand the input and output transactions of the companies. Companies should target to become the sole point of purchase of farm inputs and selling of farm produces in their catchment. Currently, the companies are engaged in marketing of only paddy and wheat. They should expand their operations to include other products also. Farmer producer companies may also expand their activity portfolio by including some other activities such as promoting production of quality seed on large scale; marketing of pulses, oilseeds etc; adopting sort of contract farming; organizing onfarm demonstrations on latest farming technology; and collective animal husbandry, especially milk production.