Anantapur: MP to hold talks with FPOs to solve logistic problems
Packed farm produce brought to railway station at Tadipatri
Anantapur: MP Talari Rangaiah is contemplating to activate farmers' producers organisations (FPOs) and involve them in marketing initiatives including organising of farmers for the Kisan Rail.Talking to The Hans India, Rangaiah regretted that the farmers of the so called Horticulture Hub are unable to take advantage of Kisan Rail due to transport logistics problem.
Since majority of the horticulture and vegetable farmers are farmers with small land holdings of 1-3 acres, they are unable to invest in transporting their produce from the farm to either Tadipatri or Anantapur railway stations.
That's why the experiment appears to have failed. A very large initiative was taken by him with the cooperation of the then collector Gandham Chandrudu to float a Trust for raising funds for twin purposes of meeting the deficit amount of payment to the Kisan Rail as well as meeting expenses for transportation of produce from farm to railway station. The paradox is Kisan Rail passing through the Horticulture Hub sans local farmers produce. Despite the hand holding given by the government, it ended up as a failed mission.
So MP Rangaiah is making a last ditch efforts to address the problems and glitches associated with the mission failure and to tighten the loose ends by now involving the FPOs in transportation of produce from farms to railway station. To realise the mission goals Rangaiah is calling for a meeting of FPOs to not only activise the passive FPOs but also to transfer the onus of transportation of the produce from farms to railway station, on the FPOs themselves as the small and marginal farmers are unable to pay the transportation costs. If this is achieved the status can change from 'mission aborted' to 'mission accomplished'.
A workoholic MP Rangaiah refusing to accept defeat is making plans to ultimately realise his dream mission and have the satisfaction of serving the small and marginal farmers. A meeting will soon be called with the FPOs to decide the next course of action.