Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar, today called upon cooperative institutions to contribute to creation of storage and cold storage capacity.

Addressing the 72nd Meeting of General Council of National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), Shri Sharad Pawar said that cooperatives have a distinct role in post-harvest management.

Shri Pawar said, “NCDC sanctioned assistance for creation of 3.70 lakh tonnes. of storage space in 2010-11 and 3.94 lakh tonnes. in 2011-12 by 31st January 2012 including renovation of existing godowns. Development of Cold Chains shall be one of the thrust areas of NCDC. It would be pertinent to mention here that NCDC has been appointed as an agency for accreditation of warehouses by the Warehousing Development & Regulatory Authority. The implementation of this system will facilitate creation of more efficient supply chains, provide enhanced rewards for grading and quality, enable better risk management, ensure higher price realization for farmers and better services to consumers.”

The Minister informed the members that amendment of NCDC Act to include Producer Companies within its ambit, has already been approved by the Cabinet and they will soon be eligible for assistance under NCDC. He said, “ NCDC achieved excellent performance during 2010-11. The performance indicators like Net Profit (before tax) at Rs.141 crore, recovery level of 99.7% and nil net NPA bears testimony of that. This deserves greater commendation in light of the high cost of borrowing in the money market and NCDC’s ineligibility to access priority sector finance beyond 31st March, 2010. The same situation prevailed during current financial year 2011-12 also and NCDC is making all out efforts to cope up with the challenges and post equally comparable performance as in the previous year. Under the prevailing circumstances agriculture sector of the country needs to become more competitive, efficient and profitable. It is a matter of satisfaction that agriculture sector in India is looking up. “

The Programme of Activities of NCDC for the year 2012-13 involves an outlay of Rs.4200 crore. NCDC will continue to support and supplement the efforts of State governments towards development of cooperatives in agriculture and allied sectors. Priority will be given to programmes aimed at benefiting weaker sections and remote regions, enhancement of storage and cold storage capacity including their renovation, Integrated Cooperative Development Projects and projects in new thematic areas. Due emphasis will be given to assisting small cutting-edge projects in large numbers.