BANDIPORA: District Development Commissioner Bandipora Dr. Owais Ahmad today chaired a meeting of officers to discuss the establishment of new Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in the district.
The meeting discussed the proposed plan for the set up of FPOs in the district and Dr Owais said that initially 12 FPOs shall be established by integrated approach between departments so that the government is able to assist the farmers upto 25 lakhs per FPO to lead to the ultimate goal of doubling the income of farmers by 2022.
He instructed the departments to make use of this opportunity and lend a proper handholding to farmers with a special focus on One District One Product approach.
The DDC said under this programme, the on-going schemes of the state government may also be converged to enhance the cost effectiveness of FPOs besides linking different schemes available in different sectors for the farmers so that the farmers get effectively benefitted from the scheme right from the sowing the seed upto selling the produce in the market.
The DDC directed the officers to work in coordination to identify the product that shall be promoted through the scheme and asked the line departments to identify one nodal officer to actively support the District Level Monitoring Committee to assist and coordinate with each other.
DDM NABARD explained that in addition to one time support from NABARD, the FPOs can also obtain credit up to Rs. 2.00 crore from banks and other financial institutions.
The meeting was attended by Joint Director Planning Imtiyaz Ahmad, officers of Agriculture Department and allied sector, NABARD, NRLM, District Manager Lead Bank and experts from Krishi Vigyan Kendra Bandipora.