Assessing skill gap of directors of farmer producer organisation in Tripura

In recent years, the Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) movement has accelerated. Millions of small and marginal farmers are drawn to these collectives and their numbers are continuously rising. Management skills are critical to the effective operation of FPOs. For FPOs to become more proficient, skill and competency development is therefore urgently needed. In order to assess the skill gap of office bearers of FPOs, an empirical study was conducted in Farmer Producer Organisations of Tripura. Satadol Fish Farmers Producer Company Limited, Bagma Agri Producer Company Limited, Chauddadevta Organic Producer Company Limited, Chokreng Organic Farmers Producer Company Limited, and Hillstop Horti Producer Company Limited were purposively selected for the study. A sample of 20 officials which included 15 Directors (3 directors from each FPOs) and 5 CEOs (1 CEOs from each FPOs) were selected randomly from the selected FPOs. In the skill gap analysis, the highest skill gap was found in effective use of delegation (skill gap =1.95) and the lowest skill gap was witnessed in systematic approach to planning (skill gap=0.9). In the most /least important skill scaling, the most important skill as perceived by officials was leadership skills with a combined mean score of 2.9. Systematic approach to planning (-1.15) was perceived as the least important skills, according to the officials. This paper shows the significance of incorporating capacity building programmes, trainings for the officials of FPOs to improve the performance.