50 FPOs from Haryana get Centre’s support under new scheme

As many as 50 farmer producer organisations (FPOs) from Haryana have got the central government’s support under the new FPO scheme.

“However, if Haryana government pitches for promoting beekeeping and do the handholding for FPOs, then the Centre will support the initiative under the beekeeping and mission and FPO scheme,” a top agriculture ministry official said after the inauguration.

The honey FPO programme of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) was inaugurated by Union minister of agriculture NS Tomar on Thursday. The federation has initiated the formation and promotion of FPOs of beekeepers and honey collectors in five states of West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The official said beekeepers of Haryana had formed a FPO in December, 2007 under the overall supervision of National Bee Board and Haryana horticulture department. The FPO having about 2,250 members has an annual average honey production of 7,000 metric tonnes. Under the new FPO scheme, the national level project management advisory and fund sanctioning committee had allocated 2,200 FPO clusters, including 50 for Haryana, for 2020-21. FPOs formed under the small farmers agri-business consortiums aim at increasing incomes of small and marginal farmers through aggregation and development of agri-business.

While speaking at the inauguration, Tomar said beekeeping is highly predominant in the unorganised sector comprising mainly of the rural population. “Despite having a huge potential of honey production in the country, the beekeeping industry is still underdeveloped. The adoption level of beekeeping is also quite less due to various constraints like technical, institutional, trade, seasonality, quality, operational, quality, etc. NAFED will address these issues by acting as an intermediary and filling up the gaps between the elements of the beekeeping supply chain and also ensure price remuneration to farmers,” the minister said.