Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman will inaugurate the orientation programme for establishment of SFPCs and buyer seller meet on 26th April 2017 at Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, a Government of India’s initiative to benefit the small and marginal spice farmers in the North Eastern States.

In the event, more than 100 spice farmers, NGOs, farmers association, primary processors from Arunachal Pradesh and 35 big exporters from across the country will be coming together for a one day orientation programme and buyer seller meet organized by Spices Board at the Banquet Hall of the city. Officials from the concerned Department/Organizations of the State as well as Central Government will also be a part of the programme.

The objective of the programme is to operationalize SFPC on pilot basis in 3 districts viz. Ziro in Lower Subansiri District for large cardamom and Namsai in Namsai District for ginger in Arunachal Pradesh & West District in Sikkim for large cardamom for empowering the farmers, especially women farmers in the identified spices growing districts, for better price realization through post harvest management, primary processing, value addition, packing, aggregation, organic certification etc.

Each SFPC will have 500 farmers as members in a sub-division or district. The farmers will be identified on cluster basis in a village, taluk or district by forming Farmer Interest Group(FIGs), each consisting of 20 farmers. 25 such FIGs will be formed to establish a SFPC.

Farmer Producer Company formation for spice farmers launched to improve post harvest processing and market linkages. The pilot programme will form Spices Farmers Producer Companies to organize small and marginal spice growers into collectives for better price realization through aggregation, post-harvest management, primary processing, value addition, packing and organic certification. Each SFPC will comprise 500 members formed by 25 Farmer Interest Groups of 20 farmers each, combining organizational structuring with buyer-seller linkages and capacity building to empower farmers, especially women.