Pawar asks NCDC to augment storage capacity

Sharad Pawar, union minister of agriculture, consumer affairs, food and public distribution has called upon the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) to launch a special and concerted effort to augment storage capacity in the cooperative sector and promote the development of cold storage infrastructure throughout the country in the coming year. 

Addressing the 69th meeting of the general council of the NCDC in New Delhi today, Pawar said that the benefits of storage facility in the cooperative sector are well known, in terms of improving the rural economy and strengthening livelihoods, while reducing wastage and enhancing food availability. The minister assured full support of the government in this endeavour.

NCDC should enhance its efficiency and review its business processes to bring them in line with modern day realities, he said, adding that the NCDC must also look at new ways of supporting cooperatives and new instruments to provide an impetus for growth of the sector.

He asked NCDC to make special efforts to guide and assist those cooperatives that may be in incipient stages of sickness and in need of external support. He was pointing top the large number of cooperatives that are either sick or plagued with incipient sickness.

The government, he said, is well seized of the matter and is considering various remedies.

Pawar pointed out that cooperatives are, of late, finding it difficult to deliver optimal results due to their inherent structural and locational constraints coupled with inertia towards changes in the economy.