The dynamic Managing Director of NCDC Mr Sundeep Kumar Nayak is making a fresh attempt to revive the nearly defunct NEDAC by convincing not only the foreign members but also the Indian govt that a cooperative to cooperative (C2C) business, on the lines of B2B is a good idea.
Nayak and his team decided first to host the General Assembly of the Network for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia and the Pacific (NEDAC) and set the ball rolling. The General Assembly scheduled on 15-16th November in Delhi will be inaugurated by the Junior Minister Parshottam Rupala. Senior Gujarat co-operator Dilip Sanghani would be present in the closing ceremony, Nayak informs.
NEDAC was set up in 1991 under FAO but for the last few years it has failed to make any headway. Convinced of its potentiality NCDC (India) is making efforts to connect countries of Asia and Pacific cooperatively. Twin aims of the effort is encouraging intra trade through co-operatives of the member states and capacity building.
NCDC is ready to volunteer making a multi-layered trade portal if the General Assembly asks it to, said Nayak. “We all have surpluses, we can export them and import what we need from member cooperatives, he said. Sugar and rice are two items produced by cooperative in India that could be exported right away.
Second aspect on which NCDC plans to focus is capacity building of co-operators and cooperatives in the member countries. “We usually find start-ups being managed by MBAs or Engineering Graduates, why can’t cooperatives be also managed by competent people, he asked.
LINAC would come handy here as we propose to offer physical facilities and get the best of faculties from across the member countries, added Nayak underlining huge possibilities that may come up from the churning of ideas at the Assembly sessions.
It bears recall that NEDAC is a regional forum linking cooperative organizations in eight countries of the region aimed at promoting agricultural and rural development to ensure food security for hundreds of millions of people in Asia and the Pacific.
NEDAC initially had sixteen cooperative organizations from nine Asian countries as members. But when some of these countries including Japan saw not much happening here, they withdrew. “We are sure to enlist them as well as new members; currently NEDAC has twenty-four member organizations”, said NCDC Managing Director underling the pull of a Cooperative to Cooperative business model.
Besides co-op financing and subject like co-op & sustainable development, General Assembly will have many thematic sessions. The Assembly will also adopt new constitution which remains unrevised since 1991. There would also be election of Executive Committee and a blue-print for work plan for the next 2 years, stated MD Nayak.
