Dr US Awasthi, MD, IFFCO, has a vast experience in the world of cooperatives. And he shared this experience and the wisdom that comes out of it at the first session of “Rural Voice Agriculture Conclave and NEDAC Awards 2021” in New Delhi on December 23. The event was organized on the occasion of Farmers’ Day and the first anniversary of Rural Voice.
Awasthi was one of the four members who spoke on “Agricultural and Rural Prosperity Through Cooperatives and Farmers’ Collectives”. He congratulated Harvir Singh, the Editor-in-Chief of Rural Voice, for his successful venture.
At the outset Awasthi said, “I have always held that a lot is spoken about the language of villages and the language of farming but little is understood. Unfortunately, the voice gets hidden and suppressed. If that suppressed voice can be made heard, an effort should be made in this direction. I am happy that Rural Voice is moving ahead in this direction.”
Awasthi then spoke about the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO), the biggest cooperative in the world by turnover on GDP per capita. People, however, know little about it. “IFFCO does not find its place in glamorous cities. It is limited to villages.”
IFFCO has grown on its own resources, which Awasthi considers a unique achievement. World Cooperative Monitor ranks IFFCO as No. 1 and Amul as No. 2. “We should be proud of this but there is very little talk of this,” said Awasthi.
He said that there was a need to change the way of thinking to make the country AtmaNirbhar (self-dependent). There should be the willingness to experiment with various models. “Not every model may be successful. But what matters is the way of thinking,” he said.
Awasthi spoke about IFFCO’s nano venture. “If nanotechnology can be there in medicine and spacecraft, why can it not be there in agriculture? And so we developed Nano Urea. And it saved the country Rs 6,000 crore.” This, he said, was one of the examples of how cooperatives contributed to prosperity.
Rural Cooperative Development Platform, which was started by IFFCO six years ago, delivers the necessary goods to farmers without any additional freight, said Awasthi. “But this was not done at a loss. We do not run after increasing our valuation. We have to move gradually along with the country.”
“We need to look for cost-effective ways of making progress in which resources are not wasted,” he said.
Besides, rural prosperity should not be driven by glamorous consumption. “We need to adopt the Indian way to become successful,” Awasthi concluded.