Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) – Analysis of Profile of FPOs and Its Members in Medak District of Telangana

This paper focused to study the profile of selected FPOs and its members. With respect to the profile of FPO members, twelve profile characteristics selected were grouped under group composition, governance and management and membership commitment. An Ex-post-facto research design was adopted for the study. Three FPOs were selected randomly from 3 different promoting institutes working in the Medak district viz., Suraksha Farmers Producer Company Ltd (SFPCL) promoted by independent research organization Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), Marpalli Kisan Kranthi Producer Company Ltd (MKKPCL) promoted by Vrutti NGO and Siddipet Kisan Agro Farmers Producer Company Ltd (SKAFPCL) promoted by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The results of the study revealed that under group composition, majority were small farmers with middle age (55.55%), primary school education (35.55%), with medium farming experience (47.77%) and with medium annual income (60.00%). Majority of respondents perceived that with respect to management and governance characteristics of FPO had poor group leadership (41.11%), fair group communication (58.88%) and medium adherence to rules(41.11%). With respect to membership commitment majority of respondents had low group participation (43.33%), medium group cohesiveness (47.77%) and low team spirit (43.33%).