NABARD celebrated its 37th Foundation Day on 12 July 2018 with pomp and flair. A commemoration Foundation Day seminar on “Collectivisation and Market Linkages: Farmer Producer Organisations” was held at its Head Office in Mumbai to mark the day. Shri Shiv Pratap Shukla, Hon’ble Minister of State, Finance, GoI graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Later on the day, Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Union Minister addressed the gathering through video conferencing facility from New Delhi. Shri H K Bhanwala, Chairman, NABARD made the opening remarks and Smt. Surekha Marandi, Executive Director, RBI, Shri S K Pattanayak, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare and Shri H R Dave, DMD, NABARD addressed on the occasion.
Applauding NABARD’s initiatives in promotion of farmer producer organisations (FPOs), which is in line with Centre’s call for doubling farm income by 2022, Shri Jaitley expressed optimism that the apex development bank would achieve the milestone of promoting 5000 FPOs in the next couple of years.
Inaugurating the seminar, Shri Shukla announced that NABARD would promote 5000 more FPOs in the next two years. He said government is duty bound to double farmers’ income by 2022 and various efforts undertaken for promotion of FPOs will help in achieving the goal.
The Seminar had two sessions viz. “Enhancing Farmers’ Income through FPOs” and “Market Linkages for Agricultural Commodities”. Dr. Sudhir Kumar Goel, IAS (Retd.) chaired the first session wherein Dr. A. R. Khan, GM, NABARD presented the theme paper. Shri J. S. Chauhan, CEO, Aterna Organic Farmers’ Producer Company, Haryana shared his experience. Shri Ashis Mondal, Director, Action for Social Advancement (ASA), MP, Shri Arindam Datta, Executive Director, Rabo Bank India, Dr. Amar K J R Nayak, NABARD Chair Professor, XIMB, Bhubaneswar, Shri S. Dwivedi, CEO, NABKISAN Finance Ltd were the panelists.
The second session was chaired by Shri S.K. Pattanayak, IAS, Secretary, Agri, Coop & FW, GOI. Brief theme presentation was made by Dr. Sunil Kumar, GM, NABARD. Shri S.K. Mohanty, Whole Time Member, SEBI, Shri P.K. Swain, IAS, Joint Secretary (Marketing & AMA), GOI, Shri R.S Sodhi, MD, GCMMF Ltd, Anand, Shri Aleen Mukherjee, Exec. VP, NCDEX, Shri Kedar Deshpande, MD & CEO, NERL were the panelists.
In the valedictory session, Shri R. Amalorpavanathan, DMD, NABARD summed up the seminar. Prof. Ashok Gulati, ICRIER, New Delhi, in his valedictory address, said that there is a need to amend the Essential Commodities Act 1955 and APMC Act to facilitate better remuneration for agricultural produce. He added that India needs to replicate the lead farmer model practised in Indonesia and the FPO concept can achieve the same provided the necessary legislative amendments are made.