Socio-Economic Profile, Motivational Sources and Reason behind Joining the Farmer Producer Companies by the Dairy Farmers in India

Abstract

Collective action approaches plays a significant role in solving marketing problems like providing the remunerative price of the product, eliminates the intermediaries from the agriculture value chain, and enhance the direct marketing between farmers and consumers. In these references, a new collective action approach being popularised in India i.e., farmer producer company. So, it is important to study the socio-economic characteristics of dairy farmers, motivational factors, and the reasons behind joining the FPCs. Hence a study was conducted from January 2020 at the three states i.e. Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh of India to investigate the socio-economic profile, motivational factors, and the reasons behind joining the FPCs among farmers. Primary data was collected through a semi-structured interview schedule using a sample of 360 farmers selected from twelve dairy-based FPCs of three states. Data were analyzed through frequency, range, and percentage. It was found that most farmers were middle-aged, possess small landholding, educated up to graduate level. The most important reason behind taking the membership of FPCs was to enhance the family income through FPCs, better price realization by FPCs, and quick payment settlement. Due to the above reasons, most of the farmers want to join FPCs in study areas. The result of the present study helps to enhance the membership of farmer Producer Company through formulating a suitable strategy that should attract the farmer to joining the farmer producer company. This also helps to identify the motivation sources and their credibility among farmers for convincing them for joining FPCs. It was also found that the participation of farmers in dairy-based farmer producer companies is largely dependent on the socio-economic characteristics of the dairy farmers.