Small Farmers' Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC)

WHY IN NEWS?

• Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar asked the Small Farmers' Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) to help in formation of 10,000 farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) as targeted by the government.

ABOUT SFAC

• The Government established Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) as a Society in 1994.
• It is an Autonomous Society promoted by Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare.
• The Society is governed by Board of Management which is chaired, ex-officio, by Hon’ble Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare as the President.
• It aims to facilitate agri-business ventures by catalyzing private investment through Venture Capital Assistance (VCA) Scheme in close association with financial institutions.

OBJECTIVE OF SFAC

• The role of State SFACs is to aggressively promote agribusiness project development in their respective States.

FUNCTIONS OF SFAC

• Promotion of development of small agribusiness through VCA scheme;
• Helping formation and growth of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) / Farmer Agriculture
• Producer Companies (FPCs) and improving availability of working capital and development of business activities for them.
• Implementation of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Electronic Trading platform and Delhi Kisan Mandi.

ADD-ON

• SFAC is one of the Central Procurement Agencies for pulses and oilseeds under Price Stabilisation Fund of Department of Consumer Affairs.

PRELIMS QUESTION:

Q. Consider the following statements regarding Small farmers agriculture consortium (SFAC):

1. It is promoted by Ministry of Agriculture.
2. It is the lead agency for implementation of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct:

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to Prelims question