A lesson in farm to fork from Hoshiarpur cooperative society

While the Punjab government has scrapped Reliance-proposed ambitious Farm to Fork project,some 325 farmers of a backward district in the state have been able to achieve what the project envisaged. Hoshiarpur farmers have opened the first-of-its-kind retail shops where they handle production,promotion and sale of their produce themselves with no support from the government. While …

While the Punjab government has scrapped Reliance-proposed ambitious Farm to Fork project,some 325 farmers of a backward district in the state have been able to achieve what the project envisaged.

Hoshiarpur farmers have opened the first-of-its-kind retail shops where they handle production,promotion and sale of their produce themselves with no support from the government. While three retails shops are already functional,15 more are likely to be opened in the next six to seven months.

The retail shops have been opened under a society,called Farmers Produce Promotion (FAPRO),Kangmai,which they had set up in 2007.

The cooperative society has set up five processing plants on one acre of land provided by the panchayat.

One such retail shop opened in Ghugial village along the state highway sells food items worth Rs 20,000 every day with its customers being both locals as well as passers-by,said president,FAPRO,Jaswinder Singh Dhaliwal

Another shop,which was opened at Dhatt village a couple of months ago,is also doing good business.

Dhaliwal said their target for this year-end is to sell food items worth Rs 25,000 per day .

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The retail shops house almost everything that is needed in a kitchen,including flour,pulses,garam masala,turmeric,soya,gram,honey,jaggery,besan,soya,chutney,pickles,amla candies,besan snacks,squashes,etc.

FAPRO farmers,a majority of whom possess less then five acres of land,manufacture these products themselves. The produce are processed and packed at the four plants of FAPRO in Ghugial village and then supplied to its own shops.

We no longer depend on middlemen to sell our produce. With these shops,we get on-the-spot payments, said Jatinder Singh,a farmer at Ghugial village.

Dhaliwal said: The society strives to prepare hygienic products and provide it to consumers at prices less than the prevailing market rate. The farmers,too,get good rates for their produce.

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Senior vice-president,FAPRO,Paramjit Singh Sooch said the society will soon open around two dozen retail shops in the district. The society as of now provides full-time employment to over 100 youths and part-time employment to 2000 youths of the nearby villages.

FAPRO products,particularly its honey and jaggery,have earned a name for themselves largely due to their purity. At FAPRO shops, the products are hygienic, said Sohan Singh of Dhatt village.

While the society has had orders from a US-based company,it had to decline the huge demand,said president Dhaliwal. He said they first want to first meet the requirement of local consumers.

The project that did not take off

The farm-to-fork project was to be launched by Reliance retail with its agri-initiative in 2007. The project,expected to shape up by mid-2007,involved reaching out to farmers,providing agri-inputs,procuring produce and paying the farmer the price of his produce on the same working day. The initial investment proposed was Rs 500 crore,which was to increase upto Rs 3,000 crore later. But the project could not be realised as the MOU that was signed by the Congress government,was scrapped by the Akali-BJP governement in August 2009.