Farmers in India to get training under newly launched programme ‘Sahakar Pragya

The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) will train farmers in primary cooperatives in rural areas of India through its newly launched programme, Sahakar Pragya. 

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Rural Development, Panchayat Raj and Food Processing Industries, Narendra Singh Tomar formally launched the programme in New Delhi on Tuesday. 

It will impart training to primary cooperative societies in rural areas of country alongwith Lakshmanrao Inamdar National Cooperative Research and Development Academy (Linac). Sahakar Pragya embodies enhancing NCDC’s training capacity by 18 fold through an elaborate network of 18 Regional Training Centres across the country by the dedicated, Laxmanrao Inamdar National Academy for Cooperative Research and Development (LINAC) set up and fully funded by NCDC. 

Tomar said, “The cooperative sector to play a role in making the village-poor-farmers Atma Nirbhar. In today India boasts a huge network of over 8.50 lakh cooperative societies with about 290 million members and around 94 per cent of the farmers in India are a member of at least one cooperative society.” 

He further added that the cooperatives have a major role in Atma Nirbhar Bharat and it lends strength to farmers to minimize risks in agriculture and allied sectors and act as a shield against exploitation by unscrupulous traders. 

There are more than 2.53 lakh gram panchayats in the country, through which the Government is working to ensure that every household has access to basic amenities like toilets, electricity, water, cooking gas, etc. And 86 per cent small farmers in the country, who cannot invest in farming on their own, the government is focusing on developing facilities like cold storage at village level for them so that farmers are not forced to sell their produce at low prices. 

Tomar said, “NCDC has emerged as a financial powerhouse giving the client cooperatives a wide range of products and services. So far it has advanced loans to the tunes of Rs 1.58 lakh crores to cooperative societies of various categories across the country. Sahakar Pragya is the latest in the series of farmer-focused steps by NCDC.” 

These 45 training modules pf Sahakar Pragya to be delivered at LINAC and its countrywide network of Regional Training Centres will address the need for training of Primary cooperatives, FPO-Cooperatives and Self Help Groups federating. 

The training programmes will be supported under NCDC schemes, 10000 FPO formation scheme of Government of India, Agri Infra Fund scheme of Government of India, PM-FME scheme of Min of Food Processing Industry, Dairy Infra Dev Fund scheme of Government of India, Fisheries Infra Dev Fund scheme of Government of India, PM Matsya Sampada Yojana of Government of India, Min of Rural Dev schemes State/UT schemes Other organizations’ schemes. 

NCDC has been created for the purpose of planning and promoting programmes for the production, processing, marketing, storage, export and import of agricultural produce, foodstuffs, industrial goods, livestock, certain other commodities and services like hospital & healthcare and education etc. on cooperative principles. It extends financial assistance to cooperatives at all the three tiers, Primary, District and Apex / Multi-State. 

Known for hand-holding cooperatives across the country with funding and project ideas, NCDC has been proactive in delivering innovative solutions for the cooperative sector. In the series of initiatives by NCDC had earlier launched the Sahakar Cooptube NCDC Channel with the aim to involve youth in the cooperative movement.   

Formation of new cooperatives is a prerequisite for bringing new life and dedication in the realm of the cooperative movement. NCDC’s guidance videos in different languages covering local requirements of 18 States on Sahakar Cooptube strengthens the major initiative of Government of India to promote and form 10,000 FPOs. 

Source : PIB