Gandhinagar, December 30, 2023: Shri Amit Shah, the Honourable Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation , virtually laid the foundation stone for the office complex of the National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India Ltd. (NCDFI) situated in Anand, on Saturday. The honourable minister was present as the chief guest of the foundation stone laying ceremony and the NCDFI eMarket Awards 2022-23, held at the campus of National Forensic Science University (NFSU) in Gandhinagar.
With a view to honour and recognise the efforts of dairy cooperative stakeholders, which trade various dairy and agriculture products and services through its eMarket platform, the NCDFI eMarket Awards were also held. The honourable minister, Shri Amit Shah, gave away the awards to some 37 winner organisations from across 25 Indian states and union territories. Farmer leaders comprising Chairman/Directors and Chief executives from these organisations accepted the Awards.
During the keynote address, Shri Amit Shah, said, “PM Narendra Modi brought about the digital revolution in India. Every G20 delegate who came to India was in awe of the extent of digital transactions taking place in India. India is among the fastest growing digital economies in the world. I urge the NCDFI members to move 100% towards e business. We have begun with a small pilot project by giving KCC Cards to each farmer in a couple of districts in Gujarat itself. Each farmer’s account is being transferred to a cooperative bank. The milk payments are being transferred into their bank accounts. If this model is implemented across the country, it will bring about a huge change to further accelerate India’s digital economy.”
The honourable minister also emphasised on cooperation among various cooperative institutions.
“Cooperation among cooperatives is important for the progress of the cooperative sector. APMC accounts will also soon be in cooperative banks. If every farmer will work via a cooperative bank, it will give a major boost to online transactions. Cooperatives must support other cooperatives,” the honourable minister further went on to say.
Shri Amit Shah also urged NCDFI and NDDB to take up encouraging natural farming and organic farming. They should promote and educate farmers about these techniques and come up with models to implement it in a way that farmers incomes are not affected.
NCDFI has pertinently selected the Milk Capital of India – Anand – where the foundation of the White Revolution was laid, to set up its office. NCDFI is now investing in a new office complex in Vaghasi village near Anand, covering a land size of 7,099 sq. mt. with a total built-up area of 4,674 sq. mt. NDDB will be constructing the facility on a turn-key basis, marking a significant milestone as NCDFI transitions from a rented space to its own structure. The complex will house NCDFI’s head office and provide space for small-scale training sessions. The 4-story building will have a Stilt basement + G + 2 Floors configuration and will be powered by a solar power plant, making it environment-friendly. By harnessing solar energy, the complex will significantly reduce its carbon footprint and contribute to a cleaner and greener environment. The building is expected to be operationalised in one year.
The honourable Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Bhupendra Patel, Shri Shankar Chaudhary, the honourable Speaker of Gujarat Legislative Assembly, Shri Dileep Sanghani, President, NCUI and Chairman IFFCO, Dr Meenesh Shah, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and Dr Mangal Jit Rai, Chairman, NCDFI were present during the ceremony.
The honourable Gujarat CM Shri Bhupendra Patel, said, “Agriculture and animal husbandry are key sectors that drive the growth of the Indian economy. These sectors will certainly play a key role in making India a developed nation by 2047. NCDFI’s efforts have been empowering several cooperatives by modernising their operations.”
A coffee table book containing concise narrative of NCDFI, detailing its journey, highlighting milestones and various activities was also launched and unveiled by the Honourable Minister, Shri Amit Shah, during the ceremony.
Dr Meenesh Shah, chairman, NDDB, said, “I assure you all that by next December, the new building of NCDFI will be operationalised. The dairy sector has provided 8 crore families with livelihood. Cooperative is indeed a wonderful tool for empowering women, providing livelihoods. Today, 80% earnings from milk production is given to farmers. We have developed the Amul Model or Anand Model which will soon be extrapolated to the global scale as Dairy to the World. NDDB is actively working towards dairy development in several areas where it is not developed yet such as Sikkim, Assam and Ladakh.”
“We recently signed a stakeholder agreement with Sri Lanka to form a JV company to enable the country to attain self reliance in milk production. A similar initiative is also in the offing for Kenya,” Dr Shah further went on to say.
Dr Mangaljit Rai, chairman, NCDFI, said, “We are fortunate to be starting our NCDFI new office in Anand which is the birthplace of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. We hope that the new office will enable several cooperatives to grow successfully, scale up and we can play a role in bringing about transparency in the cooperative sector. Our bigger goal is in line with the Honourable PM Narendra Modi’s dream if at Sahkarita se Samriddhi i.e. Development through Cooperatives. We are grateful to the Honourable Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah to support us in achieving our goals.”
The Nandini (Karnataka), Mother Dairy (Delhi), Aavin (Tamil Nadu), were the top three winner of the NCDFI eMarket Award based on the transacted business on the platform during 2022-23 followed by. An Appreciation Award was given to NDDB for continued Guidance and Patronage. Further, Amul (GCMMF), the Kaira Milk Union, Sabarkantha Milk Union, Valsad Milk Union, Maahi Milk Producers’ Company, and Vidya Dairy, were among the recipients of the e-market awards from Gujarat. Similarly, several other dairy cooperatives from Andaman and Nicobar, Assam, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Sikkim, among others, were also awarded during the ceremony.
The event saw an elaborate participation from the heads of dairy cooperatives across India, delegates from the national cooperative dairy federations, other national level cooperative federations, farmers, and government representatives.
