After a brief hiatus, I am excited to resume Agribusiness Matters Townhalls - our monthly ritual to practice group dialogues and discover systems thinking together- with a special event: “Making Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) Investable Assets” and a few special guest speakers and observers.
Given India’s agrarian DNA, Farmer Organisations have co-evolved with India's political economy.
Until the 90s, we had a strong cooperative movement. After India's 1991 liberalisation moment, the stronger need to integrate markets with farmer organisations led to the birth of farmer-producer organisations - the intrepid love child of private companies and cooperative societies.
In the "Doubling Farmer Incomes Report" which marked a seismic shift towards focusing on farmer incomes to the extent of renaming the Department of Agriculture to include farmer welfare, there were 280 references to "farmer producer organisations".
In 2021, keeping in mind the reversal of globalisation and the rise of neo-local economies, cooperatives are coming back to the fore with the Ministry of Cooperation aiming to create multi-purpose, multi-state Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACs) that will be digitised and monitored closely from the top.
With almost a decade of existence, FPOs are at an interesting inflexion point.
With PACS now making a return, thanks to Minster of Cooperation Amit Shah's political calculus to strengthen the ruling party BJP's hold over cooperatives and provide a separate legal framework for cooperatives, can the resurgence of cooperatives co-exist with FPOs? Or would they inhibit the growth and development of FPOs?
With the Indian agritech ecosystem at an interesting juncture where private investors are unable to find good ventures to back on, can the funding be redirected towards FPOs?
If you look at history, outlier FPOs (with an FPO front-end and corporate back-end) have been the ones who have gotten funding. How do we break this outlier pattern? How do we bring in a strong sense of professionalism to "mainstreamise" FPOs? Excited to resume Agribusiness Matters Townhall Conversations: "Making FPOs Investable Assets" with a distinguished panel of experts, Rahul Rai, Emmanuel Murray, Shambu Prasad Chebrolu and a few other special guests
We will be exploring these questions and more on Monday. See you there! Date: 9th September 2024 Time: 1030 AM - 1230 PM
P.S. This is a Members-Only event. Members can RSVP here
P.P.S. If you have any questions that you want me to ask, leverage the comment thread below.
Gentle Reminder for Monday's ABM Townhall: "Making Farmer Producer Organisations Investable Assets"
Gentle Reminder for Monday's ABM Townhall: "Making Farmer Producer Organisations Investable Assets"
Gentle Reminder for Monday's ABM Townhall: "Making Farmer Producer Organisations Investable Assets"
Dear Friends,
After a brief hiatus, I am excited to resume Agribusiness Matters Townhalls - our monthly ritual to practice group dialogues and discover systems thinking together- with a special event: “Making Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) Investable Assets” and a few special guest speakers and observers.
Rahul Rai, Partner, Incofin India Investment Management which led the capital round for Sahyadri Farms, India’s First Farmer-Led Organisation;
Emmanuel Murray, Investment Director Caspian and someone who sits on the boards of several FPOs and farmer finance organisations.
Shambu Prasad, one of the finest scholars from IRMA - which has a rich tradition of studying farmer organisations in India- recently co-wrote a terrific book, “Farming Futures, Reimagining Producer Organisations In India” along with Ajit Kanitkar.
Given India’s agrarian DNA, Farmer Organisations have co-evolved with India's political economy.
Until the 90s, we had a strong cooperative movement. After India's 1991 liberalisation moment, the stronger need to integrate markets with farmer organisations led to the birth of farmer-producer organisations - the intrepid love child of private companies and cooperative societies.
In the "Doubling Farmer Incomes Report" which marked a seismic shift towards focusing on farmer incomes to the extent of renaming the Department of Agriculture to include farmer welfare, there were 280 references to "farmer producer organisations".
In 2021, keeping in mind the reversal of globalisation and the rise of neo-local economies, cooperatives are coming back to the fore with the Ministry of Cooperation aiming to create multi-purpose, multi-state Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACs) that will be digitised and monitored closely from the top.
With almost a decade of existence, FPOs are at an interesting inflexion point.
FPOs are still at the infant industry level, trying to fulfil their promise to alleviate poverty and sustain beyond the funded incubation phases. National Policy on FPOs is also on the cards.
With PACS now making a return, thanks to Minster of Cooperation Amit Shah's political calculus to strengthen the ruling party BJP's hold over cooperatives and provide a separate legal framework for cooperatives, can the resurgence of cooperatives co-exist with FPOs? Or would they inhibit the growth and development of FPOs?
With the Indian agritech ecosystem at an interesting juncture where private investors are unable to find good ventures to back on, can the funding be redirected towards FPOs?
If you look at history, outlier FPOs (with an FPO front-end and corporate back-end) have been the ones who have gotten funding. How do we break this outlier pattern? How do we bring in a strong sense of professionalism to "mainstreamise" FPOs?
Excited to resume Agribusiness Matters Townhall Conversations: "Making FPOs Investable Assets" with a distinguished panel of experts, Rahul Rai, Emmanuel Murray, Shambu Prasad Chebrolu and a few other special guests
We will be exploring these questions and more on Monday. See you there!
Date: 9th September 2024
Time: 1030 AM - 1230 PM
P.S. This is a Members-Only event. Members can RSVP here
P.P.S. If you have any questions that you want me to ask, leverage the comment thread below.
Cheers,
Venky