Agriculture Minister Launched “Sahakar Pragya

The Union Agriculture Ministry have launched the ‘Sahakar Pragya’ initiative on November 24, 2020. This innovative capacity building initiative have been launched for the farmers associated with such entities across India. The initiative would enable the primary cooperative societies to play bigger roles in AtmaNirbhar Bharat call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Key Facts

• Under the initiative, the farmers in primary cooperatives in rural areas would be trained by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).
• Sahakar Pragya initiative would be implemented by an elaborated network of 18 Regional Training Centres across India.
• These regional training centres are run by the Haryana-based Laxmanrao Inamdar National Academy for Cooperative Research and Development (LINAC) that works under the NCDC.

Sahakar Pragya Initiative

Under the initiative, 45 training modules have been prepared. These training module would help in transferring knowledge, skills and organisational capacities. Further, LINAC has made a plan to train about 5,000 farmers in cooperative societies in a year under this initiative. The training modules would also equip the cooperative societies to run professional business terms of market economy.

Cooperative Societies in India

India presently has a network of over 8.50 lakh cooperative societies. These cooperative societies comprise of about 290 million members. 94% of the farmers are members of at least one cooperative society in India. It lend strength to farmers so as to minimise the risks in agriculture and allied sectors. The cooperative societies also act as shield against exploitation by profit making traders.

National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC)

It is a statutory Corporation that has been set up by an Act of Indian Parliament. NCDC was set up on March 13, 1963. The NCDC works with the objectives of planning and promoting programmes for production and marketing, storage, export and import of agricultural produce.