10,000 FPOs is not too many, but implementation challenges persist

FPOs cannot raise equity to any significant extent because of the limited paying capacity of their members, who are usually smallholders or landless people

The government’s ambitious scheme to create 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs), initiated in 2020 with an allocation of ₹6,865 crore, has achieved its target – at least numerically, and on paper. The Ami-Gramvikas FPO, registered in Khagaria (Bihar) on February 24, has become the 10,000th FPO under this programme. If the FPOs set up earlier, and outside this central-sector scheme, are also taken into account, the tally of such grassroots-level rural business enterprises amounts to over 44,400. However, not all of them are doing well. Many are struggling for survival because of issues on commercial viability, or exist only in