ANNOUNCEMENTS
The declining profits and increasing risk associated agricultural and activities related to it are considered to be the main challenges in improving living standards of rural people in India. In the Indian agricultural scenario smallholder and marginal farmers account for the largest group of farmers at around 75-80% of the total agricultural strength. The vulnerability of these groups are mainly due to operational insufficiency technological and educational gaps limited to access to cheap credit and little or no participation in the larger market and constant exploitation done by the agricultural and middleman and aggregators due to the lack of awareness. The government has come up with a great solution to the problems of the farmers by the means of FPO. The FPO’s not only collectivize smallholder farmers but also gives them a shot at the larger market helping them to get the benefit of economies of scale. This study aims to form 6 FPO’s in the state of Assam with the concept of one commodity one cluster. Also develop a business plan in favor of the farmers to promote their business and run the FPO. A mixed approach was used to carry out the study where in the current condition of the farmers and the associated market were qualitatively examined and the production data was quantitatively examined to finalize the commodity and clusters. The study suggested that commodities to be promoted were mustard, ginger and millets in the different clusters of the four districts Assam namely Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Tinsukia with favorable business plans for each target cluster. The study has help the farmares mobilize and look upon agriclutre as a new avenue of income.
Keywords: Agriculture, business plan, cluster, economies of scale, FPO, marginal, smallholder.
