Lucknow, Jun 19 (IANS): Continuing its effort to develop Uttar Pradesh as a food basket of India and ensure that the benefits of all government schemes reach the farmers of the state, the Yogi Adityanath-led government has decided to form a farmer producer cell, said a government statement.

The cell will act as an agency to accelerate the online registration of active Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in the state, connect them with online marketing platforms, and facilitate licensing and equity grants for them.

The government will launch a three-month-long campaign to expedite this process.

The state government has directed the Agriculture Department to strengthen active FPOs and expedite their connection with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and the electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) through the proposed Farmer Producer Cell, the statement added.

As many as 3,240 FPOs in the state are operating under the Aatmanirbhar Krishak Samanvit Vikas Yojana and are registered on the Shakti portal.

In line with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's intentions, a detailed action plan has been prepared to strengthen FPOs in the state.

The framework established for this includes promotion, creating a transparent agricultural market, input licensing processes (fertilisers, seeds, pesticides), mandi licenses, GST licenses, FSSAI licenses, and onboarding onto the ONDC platform for market linkage. This process will be completed by integrating it with the ONDC and e-NAM portals, the statement also said.

Additionally, it will assist in completing various important processes such as equity grants, input licenses, seed licenses, seed dealership licenses, and fertiliser licenses.

To encourage FPOs, the farmer producer cell will organise meetings at various levels with the government and prepare a detailed progress report outlining the entire campaign.

This report will be monitored at different levels, ensuring transparency and clarity on the actual progress of the work.