“NABARD has promoted around 300 FPOs in Tamil Nadu, with around two lakh farmers as members,” H Manoj, Chief General Manager, Tamil Nadu Regional Office, NABARD, said.
He was speaking at the stakeholder consultation on “From Farm Gate to Global Markets: Developing Integrated Logistics Solutions for India’s Agri Exporters,” organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) in Chennai on 18 September.
The FPOs have a variety of products, including banana, spices, coconut, dairy products and moringa, which have good potential for exports.
Manoj said these FPOs, being farmer-driven entities, do not have sufficient entrepreneurial skills to get integrated with larger value chains.
NABARD has had several rounds of dialogue with CII representatives, who have offered help to enable these FPOs to get integrated with export markets, he said.
NABARD is promoting geographical indication (GI) products. In Tamil Nadu, around 11 products are currently awaiting onboarding on the GI registry. NABARD has established a GI facilitation centre in Madurai to provide handholding support for registering products with the GI registry and enrolling farmers as authorised users.
Manoj said obtaining a GI tag alone would not help farmers or producer communities unless they are enrolled as authorised users with the GI registry. GI is expected to help improve the marketability and exportability of products, he said.
On infrastructure, Manoj said NABARD supports state governments through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund for the creation of agri-related infrastructure such as warehouses, storage facilities and cold chains, besides roads and bridges that help agricultural produce reach markets and reduce post-harvest losses.
He also highlighted NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance, which supports state governments, state corporations and corporates in creating infrastructure, including integrated logistics support systems, cold chains and storage infrastructure for agricultural produce.
NABARD is also supporting agro-processing startups. In Tamil Nadu, it has helped establish the Madurai Agri Business Incubation Center in collaboration with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
Manoj said NABARD has established around nine rural incubation centres across the country, providing mentoring and investment support to startups involved in food processing, agro-processing and value addition.