On 9th January, the 3rd Training Course on "Enhancement of Farmers' Income and Poverty Reduction through cooperatives" was formally inaugurated by Mr. D.K. Bhatt, Deputy Managing Director-cum-Marketing Director of IFFCO and Mr. Shil Kwan Lee, Regional Director, ICA-AP presided over the inaugural function. Other dignitaries present on this occasion were Mr. Hisashi Sakata, 1st Secretary in the
Embassy of Japan in India, Mr. Bhagwati Prasad, Chief Executive, National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), Mr. T. Tanaka and Ms. Oshita from IDACA. A copy of the group photograph taken on this occasion, is enclosed hereto for your information.


The participants moved to Anand, Gujarat for the IRMA Module, on 23rd January and returned to New Delhi on 22nd February. On 26th February, they will arrive in Tehran for Part-II - Comparative Field Study visits in Iran and on 4th March, they will move to Japan arriving Tokyo on 5th March 2009 for part-III of the programme till 18th of April 2009.