A two-day classroom training programme for farmers to create awareness on marketing of horticultural produce through the formation of Farmer Producer Company (FPC) was organised at the DNB Hall, ICAR -NEH, Umiam.
The programme was organised by the Agri-Business Incubation Centre ICAR-NEH Umiam in collaboration with the with CCS-National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM), Jaipur, Rajasthan and SFAC, Regional Office, Guwahati, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
India has more than 75 per cent farmers are small and marginal farmer producing different horticultural crops abundantly but marketing unorganized way. Due to that they are not getting remunerative price for their produce and are facing many challenges such as lack of farm machineries, lack cold storage facilities, transportation, and restricted market linkages, a statement from the ICAR said.
Therefore, there is a need to market their products in a systematic organized way, so that their above drawback minimized, it added.
About 40 farmers attended the training programme, who pledged to form FPCs for marketing of different horticultural products which is locally grown such as lakadong turmeric, bay leaf, ginger, black pepper, pineapple etc.
The training programme was also attended by Dr. Chikkathimme Gowda HR, Scientist (Agril. Economics), ICAR-NEH, Umiam, Dr. G Kadirvel, Principal Investigator and Dr. Abul K Azad, Business Manager, Agri-Business Incubation Centre ICAR-NEH Umiam.
