Farmer producer organisation (FPO) KPFPCL has become a game changer in at least 23 villages in this arid district, as agrarian distress has come down after farmers' income grew by directly selling their produce through KPFPCL, according to growers.
The farmers are not only getting better price for their produce through Kamareddy Progressive Farmers Producer Company Ltd (KPFPCL), they are also able to source quality farm inputs at lower rate and even agri machineries such as combine harvesters on rentals, thus saving labour and harvesting time.
That apart, farmers are able to take more than two crops a year after converting their waste land into fertile, recharging ground water, sapling of plants, and building nutrition gardens by participating in a 'Village Association' (VA) promoted by Reliance Foundation (RF) under its rural transformation initiative 'Bharat-India-Jodo' (BIJ) in 140 villages in the district.
"I have 1.5 acre of land, out of which, one acre was waste land. With the support of VA, I was able to develop land using soil water conservation activities such as trench-cum-bunding, creating of farm pond and pond silt application. Because of these efforts, I am able to grow two crops a year," said farmer Amrutha Mohan Rao from Lingampally village.
Not only the production has gone up but farmers have also been able to fetch better price for their produce by selling directly through KPFPCL without the interference of middlemen, thereby saving transportation and labour cost of up to Rs 120 per quintal, he said.
"I have been able to reduce overall cost of production and increase the profit by taking various services like sprinkler units, fertiliser and seeds from KPFPCL," he added.
Not only Rao, many other farmers are also benefiting from RF's intervention and the establishment of KPFPCL.
For instance, a woman farmer Kadham Laxmibai, who has seven acre of agricultural land, said: "I have turned two acre of barren land into productive by clearing rocks and bushes. I also created a farm pond which has helped me grow two crops a year along with a fodder crop with water from farm pond."
According to Ashutosh Despande, who heads the market linkages function at RF, said: "We are helping farmers to independently manage the producer company. We are neither funding nor taking any profit from it."
Aiming to rope in more farmers in the producer company, KPFPCL Chairman Chandar Rao said: "We will increase the shareholders (farmers) from the current 2,213 to 10,000 by 2025 and achieve a turnover of Rs 50 crore a year."
With regard to VAs, RF's Programme Integrator for Southern Region Rama Krishna said: "We are supporting each VAs by mentoring as well as with a fund support of Rs 30-60 lakh. We are supporting 21 VAs so far and they have become independent to run on their own."