Union Minister Amit Shah Urges NCCF To Find Export Opportunities For Farmers

New Delhi, Oct 21 (KNN) Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Friday urged the National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India Limited (NCCF) to find export opportunities for the farmers.

An official spokesman in a statement issued to the Press Information Bureau quoted Shah while addressing the Board of Directors of NCCF in New Delhi as urging the NCCF to find export opportunities for pulses purchased from farmers and ensure that such purchases are made at Minimum Support Price (MSP).

He said that SCCF should become self-reliant by achieving a turnover of Rs 50,000 crore by the year 2027-28.

The Minister of Cooperation said that NCCF should emphasise making Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and other cooperative institutions across the country its members to ensure that the proportion of cooperatives in the share of the capital of NCCF was relatively higher.

He said that for this purpose NCCF would have to develop its business plan and change its business approach.

Shah said that NCCF was playing an important role in fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of ‘Sahakar se Samriddhi’.

He said that under the visionary leadership of PM Modi, the Ministry of Cooperation, since its inception, had taken 52 initiatives in the last 26 months to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country and increase the share of cooperatives in the GDP.

The Minister of Cooperation said that NCCF should prepare a roadmap for the next 10 years to become a self-reliant cooperative institution.

He said that the Ministry of Cooperation would provide its full support to NCCF in implementing such a roadmap.

Shah laid special emphasis on ensuring the procurement of maize from farmers of Gujarat, Bihar, and other states by NCCF along with its associate companies for ethanol production.

He said that if NCCF and NAFED so desire, the Ministry of Cooperation could help them get their common App prepared on a digital platform from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and this app could be utilised to coordinate the procurement of maize.

The Minister of Cooperation stressed adopting aggressive extension and marketing, purchasing by giving prior assurance to farmers and setting up common collection centres.

He also suggested that NCCF can tie up with PACS for the purchase of onions and pulses so that arrangements for their storage can be made under the world's largest storage scheme in the cooperative sector.

Shah also asked to explore export opportunities for agricultural products and to purchase rice and export it through the National Cooperative Export Limited (NECL).

NCCF Chairman Vishal Singh assured to fulfill the targets suggested by Shah.

Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation, Gyanesh Kumar, and Managing Director, NCCF, Anice Joseph Chandra attended the meeting of the Board of Directors.  

(KNN Bureau)