Addressing the first general body meeting of the Cooperative Sector Exports Promotion Council (COOPEXCIL) at the NCDC headquarters in Delhi, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Parsottham Rupala said cooperatives societies can be instrumental in rural transformation, particularly agriculture.
The first-ever COOPEXCIL has been set up under the stewardship of the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), a cooperative focused financial organisation under the Union Agriculture Ministry to show direction to cooperatives in exporting their value-added products.
The meeting has both physical and virtual presence with more than 25 states’ representatives, almost all the co-op national federations, NEDAC members, eminent co-operators, several regional offices of NCDC, participating in the event.
The meeting held at the NCDC headquarters,was attended by Union State Minister, NCUI President, IFFCO Joint MD, Nafed Additional MD, among others. Sundeep Nayak, the hero of the show anchored the program informally.
In his speech Rupala lamented co-ops have failed to attract youth in any meaningful manner and there is an urgent need for co-ops to measure up to the expectations of this generation. It should not be rejected as oldies’ stuff, he stated.
Rupala also felt that cooperatives can play a significant role in achieving India’s target of becoming a US$ 5 trillion economy by 2024-25 as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Minister urged the NCDC to consider handholding of Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) being set up by the Government with an aim to aid small and marginal farmers to aggregate their produce with the help of better access to technology, input, finance and market.
National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) President Dileep Sanghani added that cooperative should be taken up as a movement so that local people are economically empowered to attain the dream of atmanirbhar bharat.
Sanjay Agrawal, Secretary Agriculture said that the gains from the first ever India International Cooperatives Trade Fair (IICTF) held in October 2019 need to be fully exploited to benefit the farmers in cooperatives. He suggested a broad based approach to involve all types of cooperatives in exports.
It bears recall that it was on July 2, 2019, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal had announced the formation of an Export Promotion Body for Cooperative Sector by NCDC at a joint press conference in the national capital.
As exports promotion activity for cooperatives, NCDC and others successfully organized the IICTF in October 2019 which had footfalls of more than 35,000 visitors and was attended by around 125 foreign buyers. It witnessed the signing of 75 business agreements valued at around US$ 1.2 billion
Rupala also advised the General Body of COOPEXCIL which has representation from all stakeholders like APEDA, MPEDA, IFFCO, NAFED, TRIFED etc., to have an advisory body and its own Secretary General and Secretariat, with NCDC playing the role of promoter of the body and making its resources available to the Council.
Lauding NCDC’s role in promoting cooperatives across the country through financing, the Minister said that the NCDC has supported cooperatives with financial assistance to the tune of Rs.1.76 lakh crore since its inception. NCDC has recently taken many other initiatives such as Yuva Sahakar, Sahakar Mitra, Ayushman Sahakar, Sahakar Pragya etc., to address the needs of cooperatives operating in various sectors.
Sundeep Nayak, Managing Director of the NCDC while acknowledging the support of all partners said that the Council would play the role of facilitator for cooperatives to export their products. The youth targeted program of NCDC, YUVA SAHAKAR will be a key driver, he added.
