NCDC to support Andhra youth become cooperative business leaders

New Delhi, 28 May 2021

Following the immense popularity of its career guidance videos among youth and farmers in the country helping them to take up cooperatives as a source of income, the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) on Thursday launched yet another similar initiative to reach out to the youth of Andhra Pradesh in the Telugu language.

These videos detailing A-Z of the cooperatives are available in the public domain, uploaded on NCDC's YouTube channel, 'Sahakar Cooptube NCDC India', and have been a hit among the youth and those interested to enter the cooperative sector.

Dr K Rajeswara Rao, Special Secretary, NITI Aayog, launching the guidance video online on the formation and registration of cooperatives in Andhra Pradesh, said such initiatives will go a long way in strengthening the cooperatives as well as help youth and potential cooperators to boost their income, thus contributing to the country’s economy.  These videos also aim to strengthen and deepen the major measures taken by the Government to promote and form 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in the country.

Last year, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, had launched the NCDC’s YouTube channel, 'Sahakar Cooptube NCDC India', to encourage farmers and the youth to take benefit of cooperatives. He had also rolled out guidance videos made by NCDC on ‘Formation and Registration of a Cooperative’ in 18 different States in regional languages, including Odia, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Punjabi and Mizo, besides in Hindi.

Dr Rao appreciated the initiative, saying that having guidelines in one place and launching the videos in local languages is a great idea as it would encourage newcomers into the sector. “The youth of the specific region will also feel connected.”  Dr Rao suggested making the videos popular among the potential cooperators in rural as well as in tribal areas. “Hope it will go deep into the rural and tribal areas and attract more youth to take up the cooperatives and more and more societies are formed,” he added.

Earlier Col (Dr) Baljit Singh, Chief Director LINAC-NCDC, while welcoming Dr Rao, who was the chief guest on the occasion, hoped that the guidance video would go a long way in the promotion and development of cooperatives, especially in Andhra Pradesh.

SK Tucker, teaching faculty at LINAC-NCDC, who guides the guidance videos initiatives, echoed similar views and said that the guidance videos aim to reach out to the youth, women and all those who could be potential cooperative business entrepreneurs, guiding them how a cooperative could be formed and registered specifically in Andhra Pradesh with respect to the State-specific regulations.

The online event was attended by representatives from various cooperative societies of Andhra Pradesh besides farmers, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), Cluster Based Business Organizations (CBBOs) and officials from NCDC.

An apex-level statutory development finance institution under the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, NCDC has provided cumulative financial assistance to different types of cooperatives in India to the tune of Rs 1,86,000 crore since its inception in 1963. Largely as associations of small and marginal farmers and the rural poor, the cooperatives have acquired a huge network of over 8.5 lakh organizations and 290 million members. Cooperatives lend support to farmers in minimizing risks in the agriculture and allied sectors and act as a shield against exploitation. About 94% of farmers in India are members of at least one cooperative.