A Mobilization-cum-Awareness Programme was conducted at Village Mushkabad, Block Samrala of District Ludhiana under the guidance of Dr. Parkash Singh Brar, Director of Extension Education. The programme was first in the series under a recently earned project funded by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) entitled “Promotion of One Farmers Producer
Organization (FPO) on Dairy Farming in District Ludhiana”. The programme was attended by the progressive farmers of the area along with NABARD officials.
Dr. Rajesh Kasrija, Principal Investigator (PI) of the Project discussed the importance of FPO in socioeconomic upliftment of dairy farmers. Dr Kasrija stressed that FPO will help to eliminate the chain of intermediaries in marketing of milk and input procurement for dairy farming. The primary producers i.e. dairy farmers can benefit from the economies of scale through accumulation of their produce. The farmer producers will have good bargaining power in the form of bulk suppliers of milk. Sh. Sanjeev Kumar, DDM, NABARD, Ludhiana discussed various schemes run by NABARD for handheld support to farmers. Dr Amandeep Singh, Co-PI of the Project informed that FPO is the need of hour in changing market scenario. He emphasised that by becoming a member of FPO, the dairy farmer will have easy access to the market and farmers can fetch maximum and timely price of their produce. He further discussed the opportunities and potentials which can be explored in the dairy sector being a member of FPO.
