India’s producer companies and small farmers: performance and impact

Abstract

Summary: The book is an exhaustive assessment of the innovative farmer producer companies or co-operative companies in India based on 23 case studies of such companies, including all-women member PCs, across four states of India. It not only assesses the physical and financial performance of the producer companies (PC) as business entities per se but also examines their impact on members compared with their situation before they became members and also compared with their non-member counterparts. It makes an assessment of performance and impact based on quantitative and qualitative data from various stakeholders like producer companies’ employees, board members, and member and non-member farmers. The book analyzes data collected from farmer members and non-members of these PCs and compares performance of PC across promoters within a state and thus assesses the goodness of promotion model of each promoter studied. The methodology used is mixed methods approach wherein case study approach as well as interview survey method have been adopted. More importantly, the case studies also include some PCs which were more of a failure than a success story, to identify existing challenges. The book also examines aspects of governance and management of these PCs for practical and policy lessons. Not just for research and academic fraternity, the book is also a very timely resource for policy makers, promoters and practitioners of collective action among smallholders given that Government of India has promoted 10,000 new Farmers Producer Organisations (FPO) over the last five years by now (2024) with large producer organization and promoter funding; and has framed a new FPO policy (2024) while many states already had FPO promotion policies and schemes.