NCDC Aims to Promote Productivity and Innovation in Agriculture and Allied Sectors

Corporation's main goal is to support, improve, and grow farmer cooperatives in order to boost output and productivity and set up post-harvest facilities.

Cooperatives are member-owned, member-controlled businesses that are run by and for their members to meet their common goals and needs in the areas of economic, social, and cultural development.

People get together in cooperatives equitably and democratically. Cooperatives are democratically run under the "one member, one vote" concept, regardless of whether the members are users, customers, employees, or residents. No matter how much money a member invests in the business, they all have equal voting rights.

Cooperatives in India

This "cooperative movement" in India gained relevance after Independence. The government came to understand that the cooperative industry significantly contributes to the growth of the rural economy. In its Five-Year Action Plans, it included room for plans for this industry.  Every village was encouraged to have at least one cooperative society.  The establishment of cooperative farms was also encouraged. These cooperative societies in India started in the agricultural markets and then grew into the credit sector, housing, and construction, fishing markets, banking, etc. As a result, several kinds of cooperative societies were created.

Among many such cooperatives, National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), is one of the most recognized and important national organizations involved in the agricultural and cooperative sector in India. NCDC was established by an act of the Indian Parliament in 1963.

About National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC)

• The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare supervises its operations.

• It is the ministry's top financial organization.

• This corporation was founded to promote economic growth through cooperative societies.

• Headquartered in New Delhi, the NCDC has 18 state/regional directorates.

• It is headed by a Managing Director.

• The Corporation would carry on its functions through the General Council and the Board.

Objectives of NCDC

• The Corporation's main goal is to support, improve, and grow farmer cooperatives in order to boost output and productivity and set up post-harvest facilities.

• The Corporation's top objectives include programs for agricultural marketing and inputs, as well as for the supply of seeds, fertilizer, and other agricultural inputs, and also for the processing, cold-chain storage, and selling of agricultural produce.

• The Corporation's goal in the non-farm sector is to provide cooperatives with the tools they need to boost income-generating enterprises, with a special emphasis on marginalized people including women cooperatives, scheduled caste & scheduled tribes, fishery, poultry, and dairy cooperatives.

The NCDC Act has also been revised, which would broaden the Corporation's operational region, support more varieties of cooperatives, and strengthen its financial foundation. The NCDC will now be able to provide funding for projects in the rural industrial cooperative sectors and for specific services in rural areas that have been approved, such as water conservation, irrigation, micro irrigation, agri-insurance, agro-credit, rural sanitation, animal health, etc.

NCDC has been working for the agriculture sector for years and to further help the cooperative in achieving its goal, Krishi Jagran will be organizing “ACF Summit 2023” that will provide a platform for the farmers to have a b2b interaction with the Cooperatives, Agri-startups, and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).