PIB Summary- 26th April, 2022 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs

Why in News?
Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has organized the National Conference of Cluster Based Business Organization’s (CBBOs), under the Central Sector Scheme of Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs (Farmer Producer Organization).

About the scheme:
Nodal: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare

• It is a Central Sector Scheme titled “Formation and Promotion of Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)” to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs.
  (i) More than 86% of farmers in India are small and marginal. if these small, marginal and landless farmers are aggregated into FPOs, it would help them to enhance the economic strength & market linkages of farmers. This in turn will help in enhancing their income.

About Farmer producer organizations:
Nodal: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare

• This is a Central Sector Scheme which receives funding from Government of India.
• It will also improve the market access for members.
• Further, “One District One Product” cluster will be created to promote specialization.
• In the FPOs, agricultural and horticultural produces will be grown and cultivated to leverage the economies of scale.

Benefits

• Small and marginal farmers do not have the economic strength to apply production technology, services and marketing including value addition.
• Through the formation of FPOs, farmers will have better collective strength for better access to quality input, technology, credit and better marketing access through economies of scale for better realization of income.

Implementing Agencies (IAs)
There are presently nine implementing agencies namely,

• Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC),
• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD),
• National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC),
• North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC),
• Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium Haryana (SFACH),
• National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED),
• Watershed Development Department (WDD)- Karnataka
• Tamil Nadu-Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (TN-SFAC) and
• Foundation for Development of Rural Value Chains (FDRVC)- Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).

Malaria

Why in News?
Every year, 25th April is observed as ‘World Malaria Day’. This year’s theme is “Harness innovation to reduce the global malaria disease burden and save lives.”

About Malaria

• The Malaria is a leading cause of human morbidity and mortality.
• Despite huge progress in tackling the disease, there are still 212 million new cases of malaria and 430,000 malaria-related deaths worldwide each year according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
• The Malaria is caused by the Plasmodium parasite.
• The parasite can be spread to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes.
• There are many different types of plasmodium parasite, but only 5 types cause malaria in humans.
• The Children under the age of 5 and pregnant women are most susceptible to the disease.
• The severity of malaria varies based on the species of plasmodium.
• The Symptoms are chills, fever and sweating, usually occurring a few weeks after being bitten.

About Government of India Initiatives to Reduce Malaria.

• The India’s progress in fighting malaria is an outcome of concerted efforts to ensure that its malaria programme is country-owned and country-led, even as it is in alignment with globally accepted strategies.
• At the East Asia Summit in 2015, India pledged to eliminate the disease by 2030.
• Following this public declaration, India launched the five-year National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination.
• This marked a shift in focus from malaria “control” to “elimination”.
• The plan provides a roadmap to achieve the target of ending malaria in 571 districts out of India’s 678 districts by 2022.