Farming Futures: Reimagining Producer Collectives in India

This book studies the management challenges and possibilities in sustaining farmer producer organisations (FPOs). It goes beyond the conventional metrics of cost-benefit analysis by drawing on 15 case studies of diverse FPOs spread across India to fill a significant knowledge-practice gap in the domain of producer collectives. The book explores issues of ownership and governance, studies the empirical basis for policy decisions on FPOs, and provides actionable insights and knowledge, keeping in mind the complexity of the institutional design of an FPO. It also discusses the envisioned role of civil society organisations in supporting FPOs and looks at the kind of institutional innovations that are needed to create a cohesive ecosystem for FPOs.

A unique collaborative project jointly authored by academics and development practitioners, the book will be of use to students and researchers of agricultural economics, environment and business, agricultural development, environmental economics, rural studies, entrepreneurship, and South Asian studies. It will also be of interest to development professionals, civil society organisations, and policymakers.

C. Shambu Prasad is Professor, Strategic Management and Social Sciences, at the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), India. His expertise and research includes several interdisciplinary fields such as social entrepreneurship, science and technology studies, rural livelihoods, innovation management, managing producer collectives and sustainable agriculture. He has been a Fulbright senior research fellow at Cornell University. He founded IRMA’s incubator in 2016 and mentors and advises several social enterprises, producer organisations and start-ups. He is a co-editor of Farming Futures: Emerging Social Enterprises in India (2019). He is a member of expert committees of the Government of India on Science and Technology and agriculture. He currently coordinates a project on ＂Small Farm Incomes＂ that explores co-creation of knowledge in agriculture by academicians and development practitioners.

Ajit Kanitkar is a visiting faculty at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Udaipur, India. With a career spanning decades of work in the development sector, he was a Senior Advisor and researcher at VikasAnvesh Foundation, Pune. He has also served as the Programme Officer at Ford Foundation and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, both in New Delhi and a faculty member at Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). He is associated with many civil society organizations across the country. His coedited book in 2019, Farming Futures: Emerging Social Enterprises in India (2019) is a unique collection of 15 contemporary case studies documenting in detail social enterprises in agriculture. In 2021, he co-edited Sowing Impact: Agri Entrepreneurs in India Stories of Innovation, Hope & Resilience.

Deborah Dutta is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), India. She completed her PhD from the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai. Her research areas span the field of environmental education and sustainable transitions, with a focus on community-practice based approaches such as urban farming. Her work explores community engagement, socio-technical systems, and sustainable food systems. She is a member of the South Asian Learning Sciences Collective, and a 2021-22 fellow of the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Leadership programme hosted by Engagement Global, Germany. She is also the recipient of a grant under the ’Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures’ project hosted by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS).