Celebrating Inland Fisheries: FPC Meet at ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore for Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav

A farmer-producer company is made up of a team of farmers who engage in agricultural production and associated activities and who share the same management style for agriculture business operations. Farmers from one town or an array of villages may make up this group. The Farmer Producing Corporation (FPC)'s principal goal is to establish agricultural companies by registering as a corporation. 

On April 29, 2023, Sundarban Dreams, a proactive NGO working in the country's eastern area, organized an FPC Meet at CIFRI, Barrckpore. The meeting's goal was to enhance the FPC members' ability for enhancing their quality of life through inland fisheries. Three technical sessions—Fisheries for Income Generation; Marketing and Financial Strategies for FPC; and Development and Monitoring of FPC—were included in the full-day schedule that began with the inaugural session.

The event's principal guest was Dr M.V. Rao, IAS, Chairperson of the West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission, and the honoured guest was Dr B.K. Chand, Joint Director of Research at the WBUAFS.

Dr B.K. Das, Director of ICAR-CIFRI, gave a welcoming address to kick off the session. He added that inland fisheries could be a productive enterprise for them to gain secured returns on their investments. He additionally stated that FPCs are created to combine producers on a smaller scale, notably the marginal and small-scale farmers, in order to defend their interests.

At the meeting, experts from the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), Regulated Marketing, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, and Neotia University shared their knowledge and opinions. Following each session, collaboration sessions were planned. 180 farmers in all, including 43 women, took part in the training.180 farmers from 44 FPCs in 16 Bengali districts took part in this programme.

Twelve farmers, including three women, from different FPCs received awards for their exceptional work in the agricultural sector. 

Dr M.V. Rao addressed the crowd and pushed the farmers to participate actively in FPCs since they had more negotiating power. The farmer was urged by Dr B.K. Chand to expand fish farming as one of the FPC's components or to merge it with other components.