The Chilarai FPC was started with the intention to empower villagers through sustainable methods of farming.
The agriculture industry is one of the most essential of all industries in India. It cultivates food for India’s vast population whilst also contributing to the economic growth of the country. Almost 70% of India’s population live in rural areas and agriculture is the main source of livelihood for them.
But as environmental concerns like contamination of water, soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions have risen due to the present agricultural methods, many agricultural companies and farmers are transitioning to traditional and organic farming methods. However, farming as a profession requires a lot of strategic planning and external resources like capital, machinery and labour that most farmers in rural areas cannot access. To address these specific issues of the rural people in Bongaigaon, Assam, the Chilarai FPC (Farmer Producer Company) was initiated.
The Chilarai FPC (farmer producer company) was started in the year 2017 in Bongaigaon with the help of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, an Indian farmer’s organisation aimed at bringing agricultural self-reliance in the country.
The FPC contains 30 Farmer Interest Groups (FIG) with 15 members in each group. The members of the groups were consequently employed by the FPC by visiting places across Bongaigaon and finding people interested in farming. The FPC also chose people who had the land for agriculture but lacked the resources to continue their profession. This perpetuated the opportunity for struggling farmers to join the Farmer Interest groups and sell their produces across the city. Although most farmers and the villagers were previously using conventional methods to cultivate their crops, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh instructed everyone to only follow the traditional method of farming after joining the FPC.
Furthermore, the FPC has received a lot of recognition and support from the Government. The Agriculture Department has considerably given them solar panels as 85% subsidy and the company has benefited a lot from this. They farm each year and cultivate crops like paddy, maize, potato and radish through organic farming. They also vermicompost and add organic manure to their crops to make them well-conditioned.
The FPC is presently in the process of setting up a greenhouse and plans to replace manpower with machines to increase their production in the future.
Author: Jessica Sam
Information source: youtube.com
Image credits: youtube.com
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