Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh has said that National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) has played a crucial role in promoting cooperative development in the country by progressively shaping its financial schemes and programmes for benefitting farmers through cooperatives. Speaking on the occasion of 84th General Council meeting of NCDC today, he said that the Corporation during the current financial year 2018-19 has already achieved an all time high release of over ?25,000 crore which is 210% of the current year target. It has registered a remarkable increase of around 222% in disbursements in last five years (2014-15 to 2018-19) as compared to previous five years (2009-10 to 2013-14). It is a matter of pride that net NPA of the Corporation is maintained at ‘Zero’ with recovery rate being over 98%.Shri Singh added that the NCDC has been proactive in delivering innovative solutions for the cooperative sector. NCDC’s new scheme ‘Yuva Sahakar’ was launched in November 2018 for giving wings to young entrepreneurs in cooperatives.
Newly formed cooperatives will be able to take advantage of the ‘Cooperative Start up and Innovation Fund’ created by NCDC with liberalized assistance for cooperatives in the North Eastern Region, Cooperatives registered and operating in Aspirational Districts, cooperatives with 100% women/SC/ST/Person with Disability (PwD) members.He said that the New Agriculture Export Policy has been announced by the government. As part of the initiative, NCDC and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) have identified common areas of cooperation and entered into an MoU. This collaboration will facilitate in providing better value to the stakeholders in agri and allied sectors through a variety of activities including focus on export in line with the policies of the Government.The Minister informed that the NCDC is organizing a first of its kind ‘India International Cooperative Trade Fair’ in October, 2019 in New Delhi. The Cooperative Trade Fair will provide platform for sale, market, product display, conferences, buyer-seller meet, networking, policy advocacy etc to national and international cooperatives and related institutions.