Patiala, July 9 -- The high-powered committee constituted by the Supreme Court to look into farmers' issues held a meeting with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on Tuesday on ways to ease farmer distress. One of the main stakeholders in improving farmers' conditions, NABARD is an apex development bank to promote sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural development. The meeting was held at the committee's office in Panchkula and attended by Shaji KV, chairman of NABARD. Formed in September 2024 to resolve farmers' issues, the committee, headed by former Punjab and Haryana high court judge Nawab Singh, questioned NABARD over a host of issues: Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs); enhancing farmer income and cold-chain infrastructure. NABARD officials told the committee that the strategy to enhance farmers' income was rooted in financial inclusion, agri-value chain development, sustainable infrastructure and livelihood diversification. The committee is reported to have confronted the NABARD, questioning, "Why not put the policy on ease of doing farming on par with the ease of doing business." When the committee wanted to know the concrete steps relating to farming distress, NABARD said it had been promoting as many as 7,400 FPOs across the country. On this, the committee quipped: "What is the outcome of promoting FPOs given various challenges." The committee highlighted that ground reports suggested many FPOs were lying defunct and there was a need to revisit the programme. "Over the past few months, various stakeholders have, through representations before the committee, mentioned large-scale failure of FPOs. We asked the officials from NABARD regarding any plans to revisit the scheme," one of the committee members told HT. NABARD, however, said it was a workable model for small and marginal farmers amid the challenges of effective implementation at the ground level....