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International Webinar on FPO – A Collective Approach in Agriculture Production System for Economic Empowerment

21 January 2021, Meghalaya, IN: The ICAR-Central Institute for Women in Agriculture, Bhubaneswar, Odisha and All India Coordinated Research Project (Home Science) Centre, College of Community Science, Central Agricultural University, Tura, Meghalaya organized an International Webinar on “FPO – A Collective Approach in Agriculture Production System for Economic Empowerment” today.

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In his keynote address, Dr. P. Das, Former Deputy Director General (Agricultural Extension) ICAR outlined the history of FPOs, understanding farm requirements, number of FPOs in the country (7,500) and certain guidelines which were given by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India recently. He stressed that accordingly, especially, for the North-East Region, each FPO should have a minimum of 100 farmers.

Dr. S.K. Srivastava, Director, ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar, Odisha apprised the participants about the FPOs’ role in making Atmanirbhar Bharat and facilitation of the women farmers to achieve gender equality through the approach of Local to Global.

Earlier, in welcome address, Dr. Puspita Das, Dean In-charge, College of Community Science, Central Agricultural University, Tura, Meghalaya briefed about the need of FPOs for the farmers to get assured market and good quality produce for getting the likable benefits.

Dr. S. Basanta Singh, Director of Instruction, Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur stressed on the importance of the Webinar’s topic to the present day scenario of the country.

Dr. Lipi Das, Principal Scientist & Nodal, All India Coordinated Research Project, ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar, Odisha emphasized on the need to focus on FPO for quality production, storage, transportation facilities, sustainable farming and resource utilization, etc.

Dr. Samarendu Mohanty, Asia Regional Director, International Potato Centre, Philippines shared his experiences on “Social and Economic Empowerment of Collective Action in Agriculture”. He also highlighted the different models of FPOs as Small Farmers Large Field (SFLF) existing in Vietnam and implementation of such models in two Districts of Odisha.

The Webinar registered participation by over 120 scientists, faculties and students from all over the country.