New Delhi: Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh today chaired the 22nd meeting of Board of Mangement (BOM) of Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) in, New Delhi, today. Shri Singh was briefed about the activities under SFAC, an exclusive society that focuses on increasing incomes of small and marginal farmers through aggregation and development of agribusiness.
Shri Singh said that SFAC’s VCA Scheme is getting good response from the agripreneurs and many cases are in pipeline for sanction. Shri Singh was also informed that all the agri-business units’ proposals have been recommended to SFAC by notified financial institutions under VCA Scheme and it is also the result of publicity and awareness camps which have been organized by SFAC to publicize the VCA scheme all over India.
The Union Agriculture Minister said that SFAC organised nationwide publicity and awareness programme to publicise VCA scheme and to provide better clarity of the EGCGF scheme amongst FPOs, Bankers/NABARD, Line Departments, FPOs Members and RIs.
FPO is being introduced in the fisheries sector and a pilot project involving formation of 21 Fish Farmers Producer Organizations (FFPOs) in the major fish producing States has been submitted. For northeast region, Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC’s) and Spice Board are working with North Eastern Council (NEC) to form spice based FPCs in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Shri Singh was also informed that SFAC has taken several new initiatives such as Advance Training Programme for Board of Directors and CEOs of FPC; Professional Handholding of FPCs; Strengthening of Infrastructure through Dovetailing with Central/ State Government Programmes; Promotion of Fish Farmers Producer Organizations; Fertilizer Dealership for the FPCs.
SFAC has provided a virtual platform in Delhi in the form of a Delhi Kisan Mandi. It has been operational since September 2014 and as on October 2017, 32347.419 MT of fresh produce has been sold through Delhi Kisan Mandi with the sale value of Rs. 3482.549 lakh.
