Farmer Producer Organizations and Agricultural Sustainability in Uttarakhand's Hills: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Conservation Practices and Economic Outcomes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53550/ijsc.v53.i3.212Keywords:
Collective action institutions, Farmer producer organizations, Hill farming system, Indian Himalayan Region, Resource conservation, Sustainable agriculture, Smallholder farmers, UttarakhandAbstract
Hill agriculture in Uttarakhand is bottlenecked with multiple overlapping challenges. Fragmented landholdings, weak market linkages, severe soil erosion and growing climate variability are some of the major ones. Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) have been promoted as an institutional response to these constraints. But, the link between FPO membership and improved outcomes in ecological and economic domains has not been studied systematically in mountain agriculture. To address this gap, we studied 300 farm households (150 FPO members, 150 non-members) across three districts in Uttarakhand's Garhwal region. It was a cross-sectional survey using multistage random sampling. Key outcomes measured were: (1) a composite Resource Conservation Index (RCI; range 0-5) constructed from ten soil and water management practices, (2) agricultural income per nali (local land unit ≈ 0.02 ha) and (3) price realization ratio. Data was analysed for group differences and OLS Regression models controlling for farmer age, education, landholding size, market distance and districtlevel variations. FPO members demonstrated substantially higher conservation adoption (mean RCI: 3.25 vs. 2.15; 51% difference; p < 0.001), agricultural income (₹4,850 vs. ₹3,520 per nali; 38% difference; p < 0.001) and price realization (0.88 vs. 0.75; 13% difference; p < 0.001) compared to non-members. These associations persisted after multivariate adjustment (RCI: β = 1.25, p < 0.001; Income: β = ₹1,156, p < 0.001). The study found meaningful associations between FPO membership and improved performance in natural resource management and farm income. Interestingly, marginal (<3 nali) and less educated farmers showed stronger associations. These findings reinforce the role of FPO model for hill agriculture particularly when targeting marginalized farmers. The mechanism underlying these associations – whether through training, credit access, market linkage or other pathways – remains topic of future studies.
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