A two-day zonal level workshop for Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) of eight central districts, organised by the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agri Business under the Tamil Nadu Irrigation Agricultural Modernisation (TNIAM) Project, got under way in the city on Thursday with the farmers organisations being told to focus on value addition for realising better profits.
Inaugurating the workshop, Collector S. Sivarasu said it was imperative for farmers to adapt to the emerging situations and learn how to add value to their produce so that they can get better returns. Both the Central and State governments were implementing various schemes, including subsidy schemes, to promote value addition and FPOs can avail the same, he said.
Under the TNIAM project, the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agribusiness Department, in coordination with Departments of Horticulture and Agriculture, seeks to enhance farmers' linkages to markets by improving farmers access to markets, promoting agri-enterprises and institutional strengthening and capacity building.
In Tiruchi district, the TNIAM project was implemented in 2019-20 at an outlay of ₹9.68 crore with the objective of integrating farmers’ producer groups and companies. Four FPOs have been promoted in the four sub-basins and each of them have been given a grant of ₹60 lakh. Apart from increasing productivity, the project also seeks to enhance the income to the FPOs by extending necessary technical and financial support, officials said.
Representatives of FPOs from Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam , Mayiladuthurai, Perambalur, Ariyalur and Pudukkottai districts participated in the workshop. They would be oriented by experts from various agencies on value addition techniques, business plan preparation, market linkages, FPO success stories, export opportunities and schemes implemented by the Agricultural Processed Food Products Export Development Agency, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, and FSSAI licences and approvals.
Deputy Director of Agricultural Marketing and Agri Business, G. Saravanan and others spoke.
