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Cornell University

TCI
Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition

Farmer Producer Organization Hub

Two women selling tomatoes

As the world’s population increases and the demand for agricultural products rises, small farms have an opportunity to play a big role and reap many benefits, if they can join together to form farmer producer organizations (FPOs) to increase their aggregate size. Using a data-driven, analytical approach, the FPO Hub of TCI’s Center of Excellence serves as a repository of learnings, information, and knowledge for the advancement of FPOs in India.

The Hub aims to create lessons, tools, and resource pathways to strengthen small farm aggregators while simultaneously catalyzing a community of practice of funders, implementors, and policy stakeholders.

TCI researchers will gauge the results of farmer aggregation globally, highlighting case studies from India and Mexico for comparison, in order to:

  • Identify successful and unsuccessful strategies for making FPOs economically sustainable and boosting agricultural growth.
  • Assess how FPOs come together to form inclusive agribusiness entities that are integrated into the full production and supply cycle.
  • Clarify how FPOs access essential infrastructure and inputs, leverage new marketing opportunities, and reach a wider customer base.
  • Evaluate the effect farmer producer organizations have on smallholder market linkages, social/gender inclusion and empowerment, nutrition sensitivity in market development, and overall welfare.

The Hub is funded through a $1 million grant from the Walmart Foundation.

FPO Platform for India

An integral part of the FPO Hub is TCI’s FPO Platform for India. The platform brings together information on thousands of FPOs to facilitate research on small-farm aggregation models and facilitate connections between FPOs, businesses, and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector. Through the interactive, web-based dashboard, researchers and others can access a wealth of data, such as crops produced, founding years, sponsoring agencies, and financial information.

Access the FPO Platform for India

FPO Blog Series

This series of blog posts explores India’s small farm aggregation landscape using data from the FPO Platform for India.

Indian farmers operate a peanut thresher

Assessing India’s FPO Ecosystem

In this blog post, TCI Scholar Ekta Joshi discusses the history of small farm aggregation in India and examines trends in FPO formation, including membership size, distribution among states, and year-to-year registrations.

A farmer sowing rice

Maharashtra Leads the Way in FPO Promotion

In this blog post, Research Support Specialist Ali Ilahi assesses farm aggregation trends in Maharashtra, the state with the most FPOs in all of India.

A man harvesting coffee beans

A Tale of Two Aggregation Models: FPO Promotion in India and Mexico

In this blog post, Research Economist Leslie Verteramo Chiu explores the different histories of farm aggregation and FPOs in India and Mexico.

A soybean warehouse in Latur

Soybean Value Chains and Market Efficiency: Lessons from a Field Visit to FPOs in Latur

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Pallavi Rajkhowa and Research Economist Leslie Verteramo Chiu recount lessons they learned while visiting FPOs specializing in soybeans in Maharashtra.

Jute sacks of soybeans

How Soybean FPOs Can Use Futures Contracts to Manage Risk

Research Economist Leslie Verteramo Chiu and Postdoctoral Research Fellow Pallavi Rajkhowa discuss the potential for soybean farmers in Latur to use warehousing and futures contracts to minimize the risk of price volatility.

Publications

Cover of "Aggregation Models and Small Farm Commercialization"

Aggregation Models and Small Farm Commercialization: An Annotated Bibliography of Relevant Literature

Tata-Cornell Institute, 2022.

food policy cover art

Aggregation Models and Small Farm Commercialization – A Scoping Review of the Global Literature

Mathew Abraham, Leslie Verteramo Chiu, Ekta Joshi, Ali Ilahi, and Prabhu Pingali, Food Policy, Volume 110, July 2022.