Pathways and challenges of farmer producer organizations in Odisha Millets Mission

Odisha Millets Mission (OMM) has been functional since kharif 2017 in reviving millets in farms and on plates and through four verticals – production, processing, marketing and consumption. Under this, the setting up of Farmers’ Producer Organizations (FPOs), one in each of the blocks where OMM is functional, began in kharif 2019 with the guiding principles of what ought to be the design of FPOs under rainfed conditions. In spite of the pandemic, in kharif 2020, pilots were taken up for six types of activities in the millets value chain, viz., bio-resource centres, ragi procurement centres, tiffn centres with millet products, seed centres, kiosks, processing of millets for inclusion of millets in supplementary nutritional programmes through the existing Take Home Ration units. These activities have been further scaled up in kharif 2021. An important aspect for some of these initiatives/activities has been their convergence with women self-help groups. A case study provides details of Taptapani FPO. We also provide additional suggestions on dos and donts to make the FPOs under OMM viable and sustainable. The broader guiding principles and the dos and donts will also serve as lessons for other rainfed areas in India and elsewhere.