SAMBA: District Level Monitoring Committee (D-MC) on Central Sector Scheme for Formation and Promotion of Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs) met here today.

District Development Commissioner Abhishek Sharma chaired the meeting which was attended by DDM- NABARD Champa Thakur, ADDC Samba, Mehmood Riaz Khan, Officials from Agriculture and allied departments and DDM NABARD.

At the outset, the DDM- NABARD gave a brief introduction on the scheme for formation & promotion of FPOs under CSS along with its objectives & benefits. The house was also informed that National Cooperative Development Cooperation (NCDC) has been assigned the task to form an FPO in Sumb block for which Jammu Central Cooperative Bank (JCCB) has been appointed as its Cluster Based Business Organisation (CBBO).

The DDC underscored the need to encourage the farmers of Aspirational Sumb block to avail the golden opportunity by coming together to form an FPO and get benefitted in terms of quality, timely and hassle free input requirements along with better marketing facility for their produce and returns.

As mushroom is being cultivated by a good number of farmers and also tagged as ODOP product of district Samba, it was proposed to take mushroom as primary crop along with Citrus fruits for formation of FPO to generate the round the year income cycle for farmers of the block Sumb.

Later, the DDC and D-MC members visited Seed Multiplication Farm at Balore in Nud block.

The team of officers reviewed the functioning of mushroom compost unit & cropping unit and advised the officials to extend the benefit of the mushroom unit to maximum number of farmers.