The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI), with support from the Walmart Foundation, has enhanced the FPO Platform for India, introducing new data and features with information on nearly 45,000 farmer producer organizations (FPOs).

The new platform includes a feature called “FPOConnect,” which allows FPOs to market themselves and interact with potential business partners and other service providers.

Created by TCI, the FPO Platform for India is the most extensive source of comprehensive data related to India’s FPO ecosystem. Stakeholders can use the interactive dashboard to access a wealth of useful information, such as crops produced, services provided, supporting organizations and financial information. The newest iteration of the platform is equipped with artificial-intelligence-powered search functionality, providing users with a richer, more efficient experience.

By improving digital visibility and business connectivity for FPOs, the platform aims to drive higher incomes, facilitate better market access, and build more resilient farming communities. In India, 86% of farmers are smallholders with less than 2 hectares of land. The average farm is only 1.15 hectares. Smallholders are disadvantaged when it comes to accessing markets, credit, and agricultural inputs like seeds. By joining together in FPOs, farmers can reduce costs and improve market access, helping to drive higher agricultural productivity, enhanced food security and livelihood development.

“FPOs are a critical part of India’s efforts to boost agricultural productivity in support of improved nutrition and increased farmer incomes,” TCI Director Prabhu Pingali said. “Our data platform empowers researchers, policymakers and others to better understand India’s FPO ecosystem and craft policies and interventions to make FPOs more effective.”

In addition to a data dashboard, the new version of the platform features a networking tool called FPOConnect. Through this tool, FPOs can claim their pages and create personalized business profiles on the platform. The profiles are accessible through search engines, providing FPOs with a valuable web presence. Businesses, FPO promoters, service providers and others can also join FPOConnect to follow and message FPOs directly.

“Beyond a source of data, the FPO Platform now empowers FPOs to market themselves and facilitates connections between FPOs and stakeholders across the agricultural and business sectors,” Pingali said. “Through FPOConnect, we hope to increase market opportunities for small farmers and create a nurturing community for FPO promotion throughout India.”

The platform will also feature a regular blog series highlighting the latest data on FPOs in India, stories from individual FPOs and their supporting organizations, and policy developments that influence the FPO ecosystem.

The project began in 2019 with a $1 million grant from the Walmart Foundation to study challenges facing smallholder aggregation models in India and Mexico. In 2022, TCI received a second grant from the foundation to enhance the FPO database and expand its research on FPO-led market access models, followed by an additional grant in 2024.

“We are dedicated to supporting innovative models that help smallholder farmers thrive,” said Nishant Gupta, social and environmental impact advisor to Walmart.org. “The enhanced platform and the new FPOConnect feature represent important steps toward strengthening market access, visibility, and opportunities for FPOs across India as well plugging an important knowledge gap around the current state of the FPOs.”

The FPO Platform for India and FPOConnect are part of TCI’s project on FPO-Led Small Farm Market Access Models, which aims to better understand the challenges facing FPO models in India and around the world. TCI research on FPOs can be accessed through its FPO Hub. Part of the TCI Center for Excellence in New Delhi, the hub serves as a repository of research, information and knowledge for the advancement of FPOs in India.

Featured image: A woman uses the FPO Platform for India to look at a map of FPOs in India. (Photo illustration created with generative AI)