The president of Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd, SR Satishchandra, has asked the government to implement the FPO (farmer producer organisation) model to upgrade PACS (primary agricultural cooperative societies) in the country.

Speaking at the valedictory of an online training programme on ‘Enterprise diversification in coconut sector’, organised by the Kasaragod-based Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), he said that the Centre has taken initiatives to form around 10,000 FPOs in the country. Supported by Nabard, these FPOs will play a major role in the development of the farming sector in the coming years.

He said the country has around 93,000 PACS. Requesting the government to extend all the benefits of FPOs to PACS also, Satishchandra said these PACS already have establishments and infrastructure of their own. The extension of benefits available to FPOs to PACS will help speed up work in their given areas, he said.

Positive measures

The decisions of the government to introduce GST, establish e-NAM and bring ordinances on reforms in the farming sector will help farmers in a big way, he said. Some of these measures help provide direct link between the growers and consumers, thus helping the farmers to get maximum price for their produce, he said.

Thanking the CPCRI for conducting online training programmes on coconut for farmers, he said such programmes should also be conducted for other plantation crops such as arecanut and cocoa.

In the post-Covid era, many youngsters are returning back from urban areas to rural areas to take up farming. They need technical and other vital information related to farming from experts. In such a situation, the agri institutes should conduct such online training programmes on a monthly basis, he said.

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