Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Friday appealed the Board of Directors of government-run National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF) to set a target of ₹50,000 crore turnover by 2027-28 for which they need to change the business approach.

Addressing the Board, Shah said NCCF should prepare a roadmap for the next 10 years to become a self-reliant cooperative institution. He assured full support from the Cooperation Ministry in the implementation of such a roadmap, an official statement said.

The Minister said the NCCF should emphasise on making Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and other cooperative institutions across the country its members so as to ensure that the proportion of cooperatives in the share of capital of NCCF is relatively higher.

The Minister also suggested NCCF to start procurement of maize from farmers of Gujarat, Bihar and other States where it is not done by any agency, for ethanol production. It can be done through its associate partners, he added.

“If NCCF and NAFED so desire, Ministry of Cooperation can help them get their common APP prepared on a digital platform from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and this APP can be utilised to coordinate during the procurement of maize,” he said.

Export opportunities

He also asked NCCF’s Board to explore export opportunities for agricultural products and to purchase rice and export it through the newly formed National Cooperative Export Limited (NECL). Besides, NCCF should also to find export opportunities for pulses purchased from farmers and ensure that such purchases are made at Minimum Support Price (MSP), the Minister said.

Shah was of the view that NCCF should be aggressive in both agriculture extension and marketing -- prior assurance to farmers on the purchase and setting up common collection centres.

Highlighting that Ministry of Cooperation has taken 52 initiatives in last 26 months to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country, he said the steps would help increase share of cooperatives in the GDP. Her asked NCCF to tie up with PACS for purchase of onions and pulses, so that arrangements for their storage can be made under the world’s largest storage scheme in the cooperative sector.

NCCF Chairman Vishal Singh assured that the targets suggested by the Minister will be fulfilled.

At the General Council meeting of the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) in New Delhi on October 9, Shah had asked the government’s funding agency to set a target of achieving ₹1 lakh crore annual credit disbursal in next 3 years. A total of ₹2,78,378 crore financial assistance have been disbursed by NCDC to agriculture and horticulture cooperative societies since its inception in 1963.

NCDC has disbursed financial assistance of over ₹41,000 crore in 2022-23 and has set a target to achieve ₹50,000 crore in current fiscal while there is zero net NPA.

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