Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) are an integral aspect of BAIF’s agri-horti-forestry (wadi) programme. BAIF has promoted over 50 FPOs to provide backward and forward market linkages in its operational areas. The activities include collective agri-input purchase, knowledge dissemination, promoting modern agricultural practices, collective aggregation of produce, grading, processing, packaging, branding and direct marketing while enabling a support price for critical commodities and strengthening the capacities of their members.
The local wadi groups aggregate the produce and supply it to their cooperatives for grading and processing. To provide marketing support to these cooperatives, BAIF has promoted a second-tier Farmer Producer Company known as Vasundhara Agri Horti Producer Company Ltd. (VAPCOL).
VAPCOL, with its focus on processing and marketing of fresh and processed fruits, nuts and vegetables, has a membership base of more than 50 producer organisations and 40,000 farmers spread across 7 states.
