-Economic and Political Weekly The food systems approach proposes reducing food loss and waste as a potential solution to achieve food and nutritional security. This is formalised in the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Despite the issue receiving such ubiquitous recognition, systematic efforts to measure and address FLW are absent in India. Our calculations show that one-sixth of agricultural production, accounting for one-tenth of the gross value added in...

-Down to Earth Eligibility threshold for FPOs should be reduced or support provided to meet the criteria, experts feel Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) figure prominently in government policies and the ambitious plan to double farmers’ income by 2022. But funds remain elusive for these bodies, according to a recent analysis.  Just 1-5 per cent of FPOs have received funding under central government schemes introduced to promote them in the last seven years, the...

-The Tribune A major hurdle to increasing exports is the decades-long neglect of export market infrastructure, which doesn’t meet the importing countries’ standards in terms of quality, quantity and other attributes such as food safety norms. India lacks an export-oriented strategy for agricultural commodities to establish itself as a regular supplier to international markets due to ad hoc measures such as a ban on exports or increase in tariffs off and...

When one of the three farm laws i.e., The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 was enacted last year, it was argued by its proponents that the legislation would allow the farmers to sell their produce (and the traders to purchase that produce) outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committee-APMC mandis after crop harvesting. In a way, that particular piece of legislation was enacted to end the...

-The Hindu Business Line More farmers are coming together but are unclear about how to leverage Farmer Producer Organisations to boost their income Over 180 Farmer Producer Organisations(FPOs) are either in the process of registration or have started functioning in Beed district of Maharashtra. More farmers are joining hands to form FPOs under the Central government’s scheme to promote farmer collectives. However, most of these companies are in the dark about how...