First consignment of Farmers Producers Company's apples flagged off

Solan, August 26

Agriculture Secretary Rakesh Kanwar yesterday evening flagged off the first consignment of natural produce by Farmers Producers Company (FPC) to buyers in Delhi and for value addition at Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni.

As many as 225 boxes were shipped to buyers in Delhi while the value addition of 150 crates would be undertaken at the Nauni university.

Kanwar said the registration of FPCs of farmers doing natural farming is a step towards achieving mutually beneficial producer-consumer linkage.

“The farmers, however, have a tedious task ahead of running the FPCs with a professional approach. The government can support them initially, but ultimately, the farmers will have to reduce their dependence and improve their capacity to make successful business models. An MoU has been signed with NABARD recently which will provide support to FPCs during the initial years,” said Kanwar.

Naresh Thakur, State Project Director, Prakritik Krishi Khushal Kisan Yojna, said they were targeting to constitute 10 such FPCs. He assured them that the State Project Implementing Unit would support them with logistics and technical know-how initially. He said it was a step towards the transformation of farmers into businessmen and if they can provide private land or easily transferable government land, the collection centres for natural produce could be set up.