ONGOLE: Following the directives of the State government, Prakasam district collector Pola Bhaskar instructed the agriculture department officials to establish 1,000 farmer producer organisations (FPOs) in the district by next year.
Currently, there are 15 FPOs under the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), 14 FPOs under the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and 15 under the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDA), hence total 44 FPOs in the district.
Through these organisations, the government is going to implement all welfare and beneficiary schemes to the farmers from providing quality seeds, sale of agriculture produce to matters of minimum support price.
In order to create awareness among the farmers regarding the FPOs, the Agriculture and ATMA officials are going to conduct a workshop here on the District Agriculture Market Yard premises on October 25. In this regard, several rounds of discussions and meetings have been conducted by the higher authorities.
“By the next year, around 1,000 FPOs should be formed in the district,” Bhaskar instructed the Agriculture, Horticulture, Marketing and Banking officials at one such meeting held recently.
He further said that through the FPOs, authorities are going to provide soil analysis tests, quality seeds, quantity of fertilisers, creating awareness about alternative methods of farming and effective water management will be done. After establishment, the government is going to bring them under the jurisdiction of Village Secretariats.