NAFPO State of FPO

The book is anchored by Dr Gouri Krishna who was former CEO and MD of BASIX Consulting and Technology Services Ltd. and has experience of working with Co-operatives, Self Help Groups, and Farmer Producer Organisations.

Published Summer 2022

Some interesting excerpts

From Chapter 1 “Journey of FPOs: Understanding Typology and Evolution – An Overview” by MS Sriram (Faculty member, Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. Email: mssriram@pm.me)

“The other aspect is about the nature of engagement with the organisation and its impact on the sense of ownership. Unlike capital- centric organisations, where there is some element of equity capital invested which can provide the glue to monitor and worry about the fate of the enterprise, in the case of collectives, the engagement with the enterprise is by definition transactional. The enterprise is structured to benefit people who transact more through a better price or bonus. Loyalty and stickiness to an organisation can develop only when these transactions are regular and repeated (as in dairy co-operatives). There is a good scope for members to exhibit strategic behaviour where they may continue membership but do an occasional transaction outside of the collective because it turns out to be lucrative. In such a situation, the collective will have to devise incentive systems that reward the stickiness of transactions. Given the nature of engagement, apart from time, there also has to be an inclination to get into the governance of the organisation. Invariably, we find that in very good collectives it is the manager who devises the rules of engagements that keep the members loyal. It is a peculiar conundrum where the employee of a set-up finds that it is in her long-term employment interests to safeguard the interest of the members rather than the member-owners. The engagement of the employee is much more relationship-based and sticky than the members’ transactional relationship.”