Latest news with #FarmerProducerOrganisation
The Hindu
13-06-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Totapuri mango farmers fear produce will wither soon if not procured
The woes of mango farmers especially the Totapuri variety keep increasing with no solution in sight. The fruits are ripe and ready for harvest, but with scores of fruit pulp making units across Tirupati and Chittoor districts reluctant for procurement, owing to stock piled up over the last two years, the fruit is likely to wither any moment. Totapuri (locally called 'Bengalura') variety is grown on 50,000 hectares in the undivided Chittoor district and the yield is pegged at a whopping six lakh tonnes this year. At a joint meeting held with mango pulp unit representatives, farmer leaders and 'Mandi' owners recently, district Collectors Sumit Kumar (Chittoor) and S. Venkateswar (Tirupati) announced procurement of mangoes from farmers at ₹12 per kg. After the factories sounded an alarm, the government chipped in with a support price of ₹4/kg, requiring the factories to pay ₹8/kg. The farmers usually dispose the produce by directly supplying to the factories, to the nearest Mandi, at the ramps (one-stop purchase points where the produce is loaded directly into waiting trucks), and at the nearest Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO), who, in turn supply to the factories. The government had deployed officials at the factories, ramps, FPOs and Mandis to take details of the farmers and the quantum of supply. Despite such foolproof measures, the factories have reportedly insisted on a quick-fix solution to the piled up pulp before throwing their gates open to the incoming produce. The agitated farmers on Wednesday (June 11) had staged a protest over the district machinery's inability to implement its orders on mango procurement at Damalacheruvu junction on Chittoor-Kurnool national highway. Meanwhile, some factories had partially opened their gates to purchase mangoes, but at a paltry ₹5 per kg and not the mandatory ₹8/kg. 'At ₹5, we will not get even the cost incurred towards harvesting and transporting the yield to the factories', rued a farmer Goduguchinta Ravindra. While there are ramps that load fruits into waiting trucks bound to northern States, there is lack of clarity on how to secure the farmer's (beneficiary) details and account for this supply. 'If we are paid for supplying to ramps, much stock will be cleared in no time', says B. Dhananjaya Naidu, a mango supplier for three decades.
Hans India
27-04-2025
- Business
- Hans India
6,000 agri-startups not enough, need more: VP Dhankhar
New Delhi: Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday called upon entrepreneurs to make the most of the government's incentives and raise the number of agri-startups, which number just 6,000 in a country of 1.4 billion. Addressing the gathering at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, on the theme 'Fostering Agri-Education, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Viksit Bharat', Dhankhar said, 'There are 6,000 agri-startups, but for a country of 1.4 billion, a country that has 100 million farming communities farmlands, this is not the right number.' 'The government has taken many initiatives. People must be aware of them. Make them aware of them. Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO), I studied it in great depth. There is a budgetary allocation of Rs 1 lakh crore. This can fund various activities to enhance and strengthen infrastructure for the farmer,' he said. Vice President underscored that "we must move from food security to farmer prosperity." The farmer, he said, must be prosperous, and this evolution must originate from institutions like Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. He further elaborated that farmers must step off the farmland and involve themselves in marketing their produce. "Farmers should not just be producers and forget about it. That would mean they will painstakingly, tirelessly raise a produce and will sell it at a time when it is right for the market, without holding it. It doesn't give much financially," he noted. He called for empowering the farmers by generating awareness and informing them that the government cooperative system is very robust. Highlighting the role of research and technology in agriculture, he stressed that the gap between lab and land must not merely be bridged — it must be a seamless connection. "Lab and land must be together and for this, over 730 Krishi Vigyan Kendras must be vibrant centres of interaction with farmers, to educate the farmers," he said. He also called for connecting Krishi Vigyan Kendras and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, which has over 150 institutions focusing on every aspect of Agronomy.
