APIRAS APAARI Good Practice n.1 on Institutional Innovations. Strengthening the Farmer Producer Organization Ecosystem for Farmer Prosperity

In India, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) are considered as the most preferred institutional mechanism for enhancing productivity and income of farmers. This is based on the resounding success of a few farmer collectives that have aggregated their produce to realise better incomes. However, when efforts were made to scale up this interesting model across the country, several challenges emerged. Some of the major challenges for FPOs were lack of sufficient capacities among farmers in managing their collective enterprise and engaging with market actors, and absence of a collective voice to shape the enabling environment. To address these challenges and to strengthen the FPO ecosystem, the different stakeholders in the FPO ecosystem came together in 2017 to set up the National Association for Farmer Producer Organisations (NAFPO). Over the last few years, NAFPO's network has expanded continuously with stakeholders ranging from the entire spectrum of the value chain, including FPOs across the country, state federations, financial partners, market players, technology service providers and academia.

In this Good Practice Note, Aneesha Bali reflects on the performace of NAFPOs and how they contributed to institutional consolidation of FPO mobilization efforts that have resulted in integrating resources specific to the FPO sector and providing end-to-end functioning of FPOs.