Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP (podium) addresses the audience.
The International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) in collaboration with the Verghese Kurien Centre for Excellence (VKCoE) at Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), the Department of Co-operation in Government of Odisha, and support from the ICA-EU Partnership on Cooperatives in Development (#Coops4Dev) attended the Workshop on “Doubling Farmers Income: Exploring Pathways for Cooperatives in Odisha”. It was organized at the Odisha State Cooperative Bank from August 29-30, 2019.
The Government of India with significant departure from its past policies of emphasizing only on production now focuses on the marketability of the produce, too. This deviation is primarily aimed at Doubling the Farmers’ Income (DFI) by the year 2022. Farmer’s collectives like cooperatives, especially those which are involved in high value agricultural and allied products, have a substantially large role to play in achieving this goal. Cooperatives in the country have also been evolving under the influence of various elements. These elements need to be calibrated and optimized as per the requirements to solve the present-day challenges of various cooperatives at large and agricultural cooperatives in particular. With this rationale, the workshop was planned in the eastern coast of India, to find various reasons why the cooperative infrastructure is not being used to its fullest potential in the state of Odisha.
The inaugural session was graced with the presence of Shri Ranendra Pratap Swain Hon'ble Minister, Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare, Cooperation, Odisha and Dr. Arun Kumar Sahoo, Hon'ble Minister, Agriculture & Farmers' Empowerment, Fisheries & Animal Resources Development, Higher Education, Odisha.
Smt. Gayatri Patnaik, Department of Cooperation, Government of Odisha makes her presentation
This was followed by presentations made by key panellists including Shri Debendra Kumar Jena, IAS, Managing Director, Odisha State Cooperative Bank; Smt. Sarojini Mishra, Chairperson, Orissa State Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation; Smt. Gayatri Patnaik, Department of Cooperation, Government of Odisha; Shri Manoranjan Pani, Senior General Manager (Sales & Marketing), Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation; Mr. Lav Bhardwaj, Young Professional, NITI Aayog; Dr. Patanjali Tripathy, Dept. of Cooperation, Govt. of Odisha, Dr. K.K. Tripathy, IES, Director, VAMNICOM, Prof. Hitesh Bhatt, Director, IRMA and Prof Harekrishna Misra, Chair, VKCoE.
The ICA-AP office was represented by Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer and Mr. Mohit Dave to provide an overview on Regional Cooperation for DFI in the context of policies, market and networks. Mr. Iyer spoke about how the regional office of ICA works closely with members and development partners at various levels to promote an enabling environment for cooperatives in the region. They emphasized on the role of youth and women in cooperatives, and the contribution of agriculture and allied sectors in the economy, as per the World Cooperative Monitor 2018 report. The presentation can be accessed here
The workshop ended with theme-based group exercises to discuss the enabling factors for DFI from the standpoint of four dimensions: (1) Governance and Leadership in Cooperatives, (2) Member Centrality, (3) Infrastructure, Services and Ecosystem Convergence, and (4) Government Strategies and Policies. It also successfully generated crucial policy recommendations for the cooperative sector in Odisha as a whole. It is further aimed to use the findings from the workshop to produce rich knowledge base and actionable research agenda in line with the national policies, to address the contemporary challenges of the cooperatives in the country.
