Easy credit for farmer-producer organisations on cards in new policy

Comprehensive restructuring of SFAC also promised to smoothen setting up 10,000 FPOs

The Central government is planning to come up with a scheme to smoothen the functioning of 10,000 farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) it has promised to set up in the next few years.

The scheme will ease registration under the Companies Act, reduce documentation, give working capital for meeting their procurement needs, and restructure the Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), which is the nodal agency for promoting FPOs.

According to senior officials, the scheme, the details of which are being worked out, will be placed before the cabinet for approval and have measures to facilitate easy credit for warehousing and farm-gate sale