The 65th All-India Co-operative Week was celebrated between November 14-20 across India. The theme for this year’s co-operative week was ‘Inclusive growth and good governance through co-operatives for rural prosperity’. The National Co-operative Union of India (NCUI) organised an opening seminar to the co-operative week. The Seminar began with an opening message delivered by Dr. Chandrapal Singh Yadav, President of NCUI & Vice-President of ICA-AP.
Dr. Yadav said that farmer welfare is intrinsically linked to a country’s economic growth. Co-operatives have played a crucial role in the development of the agricultural sector. Co-operatives can address farmer distress and help stem the suicide rate amongst farmers. Co-operative should work together to help struggling co-operative societies. Dr. Yadav further stressed that women and youth need to be mainstreamed further into the co-operative movement. A strong national co-operative policy will be the ideal boost needed by the co-operative sector.
Mr. Balu Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP, stated that there are 1.2 billion members of co-operatives across the globe, such that 1 in every 6 persons is a co-operator. It is imperative for co-operatives to continue to innovate and strengthen themselves. Agriculture and consumer co-operatives in India should focus on setting up and bolstering value chains. Another important component for ensuring inclusiveness in the co-operative eco-system is the role of young people. Today young people are interested in start-ups. What better start-up exists than a co-operative? He said that for sustaining and making co-operatives more inclusive, we need to re-imagine how we include youth in co-operatives.
The Chief Guest of the Seminar was the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri. Radha Mohan Singh. He opined that primary agricultural co-operatives require good governance and upgradation in technology to stay competitive and resilient. He announced that his Ministry had just launched a new scheme to encourage co-operative start-ups and business ventures in agriculture and allied sectors. The ‘Yuva Sahakar Co-operative Enterprise Support and Innovation Scheme' and will be implemented by the National Co-operative Development Corporation (NCDC). A fund of Rs. 1,000 crore has been allocated to this scheme and is aimed at co-operatives from the North-Eastern part of India and ‘those registered and operating in 'aspirational districts' identified by think-tank Niti Aayog as well as co-operatives which have 100 per cent women and SC/ST members.’
