Comparative Impact Assessment of Diverse Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) in Bihar: An Inter-FPO Variation Analysis using Post Hoc Tukey's HSD Test

Author: Mohit Kumar Gupta, Sudhanand Prasad Lal, Satya Prakash and Gyan Shukla

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Abstract

Farmers are principal members of Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs), a specific class of POs that pact with the production, marketing, and value addition of agricultural products. The primary mission of FPO is to mobilize farmers into member-owned producer companies for enhancing the negotiation power of marginal and small farmers through developing a judicious economy of scale at farm gate. It is an important tool for shifting the focus of farmer from mere production to marketing of produce i.e., transforming agriculture to agri-business management (ABM) and to realise farmers that ‘agriculture is more than just cows and plows’. The study was performed in the Samastipur and Muzaffarpur district of Bihar state with an objective to analyse the impact of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) on its member farmers. 5 FPOs were selected purposely since each FPO deal with different agricultural commodity. A total of 250 members (having at least 5 years of experiences in FPOs) were randomly selected for the study from each five FPOs at the rate of 50. The main challenge in the study was to compare the impact of all 5 FPOs together through suitable statistical method. This comparison of impact was analysed through Post Hoc Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) test. The results concluded that Samarpan Jeevika Mahila Kisan Producer Company Limited ( =0.7470) was the most impactful FPO trailed by Jan Nayak Farmer producer company limited ( =0.7465), Pusa Seed Producer Company Limited ( =0.6291), Tirhut Honey Farmers Producer Company Limited ( =0.6201) and Maurya Farmer Producer Company Limited ( =0.5897). Subsequently, overall mean impact of FPOs was =0.6664. Hypothesis testing was done though Post Hoc Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference test. From Tukey’s HSD test it was inferred that when Maurya Farmer Producer Company Limited (4) was chosen as a reference category then it has maximum number of asterisk and significant difference with all 4 FPOs i.e. significant at 1% level. From this it can be deducted that Maurya Farmer Producer Company Limited was the least impactful FPO among all 5 selected FPOs for the study.

Keywords

Agri-business management, economy of scale, FPO, farmer producer organization, honestly significant difference (HSD), Impact Assessment, Post Hoc test

Conclusion

In India, where 86.2% of farmers grapple with marginal land holdings, the government, inspired by economist Y. K. Alagh's committee, introduced Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) to address challenges from production to marketing. For this five FPCs of Samastipur and Muzaffarpur districts in Bihar were investigated. Findings of the study, brought by using SPSS software, revealed that Samarpan Jeevika had the highest impact, with Maurya Farmer Producer Company Limited being the least impactful among them. The overall mean impact of FPOs was =0.6664. This concise study underscores the significant role of FPCs in the agricultural landscape, aiming to empower small and marginal farmers for sustainable development.

References

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How to cite this article

Mohit Kumar Gupta, Sudhanand Prasad Lal, Satya Prakash and Gyan Shukla (2023). Comparative Impact Assessment of Diverse Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) in Bihar: An Inter-FPO Variation Analysis using Post Hoc Tukey's HSD Test. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(9): 644-648.