Farmer producer organisation (FPO) is a type of producer organisation (PO) which is a legal entity formed by primary producers, viz. farmers, milk producers, fishermen, weavers, rural artisans, craftsmen and the alike. The primary objective of a FPO is to mobilise small and marginal farmers (~80% of total farmers in India) into member-owned producer organizations. It helps to foster technology penetration, improve productivity and access to the inputs, investments, markets and services, and increases farmer incomes, thereby strengthening their sustainable agriculture based livelihoods. At the initial stage, three years of government assistance is provided to these FPOs. During research, a pressing need is felt for a common framework which could help governing bodies to understand the needs and requirements at the bottom level and channelise their efforts and actions in that direction. This would help to optimise operations and help to achieve their targets efficiently for both.

A Rubric framework is developed to evaluate the performance of the FPOs. There can be two types of Rubrics: analytic and holistic. Here, an analytic typeof rubric is used as it provides more detailed performance by breaking down the components in different tasks, giving feedback on each component. For this study, 20 criteria are chosen to assess the end-to-end supply chain of the FPOs. Indicators are categorised into three parts, institutional structure, input side and output side.

A four-fold scale is defined to evaluate FPOs against these criteria:

Criteria

Missing (0)

Developing (1)

Proficient (2)

Exemplary (3)

Strategic
Orientation

Have conception
in the mind but
not clear with the
definite objectives

Knows the objectives
but doesn't know
how to proceed

know how to   proceed to achieve objectives but not
clear with mission

Working towards
mission and planning
for future goals

A unique scoring method is designed to evaluate FPOs:

Rubric score

Total sum of each criterion

Percentage Rubric score

(Total Rubric score ÷ Maximum total Rubric score) × 100

Weighted score

Rubric score × respective weightages

Total percentage Rubric score

(Total weighted rubric score ÷ Maximum total weighted Rubric score) × 100

From the case studies done in Pune and Nashik, ~ 30 FPOs are evaluated using proposed methodology. FPOs are classified into four categories with the help of box whiskers plot obtained from their percentage weighted rubric scores It is found that 24% of these FPOs are at high risk of sustenance. One of the IIFPOs which was registered more than 4 years ago has got 24% weighted rubric score. While there is FPO like Abhinav Farmers Club which was registered in 2004 and got 97% rubric score. Similarly Kalpvalli has got 70% score in spite of getting registered recently. Altogether 42% of the FPOs are suffering due to the end of government assistance. It demands for a regulatory body which can closely monitor these FPOs. A comparative analysis shows that Nashik FPOs are performing better in institutional structure and input side while Pune FPOs are better at output side. The overall weighted rubric score of Pune FPOs is 45% while that of Nashik is 49.67%.