KOCHI: The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed) has prepared a road map for Kerala, laying out a number of activities in agriculture and related areas.
The roadmap was released at a press conference here on Sunday by Union Minister of State for Agriculture K.V. Thomas in the presence of Chief Executive Officer of Nafed C.V. Ananda Bose.
Coconut processing and value addition tops the agenda for Nafed in Kerala. It hopes to tap the potential of cooperatives in various other government departments and research institutions to set up coconut processing and value addition units in the State.
Cooperative agricultural hubs leveraging the proposed perishable cargo complex being set up on the Nedumbassery airport premises are also on the anvil. These hubs will focus on horticultural produce using the latest technology and high density planting.
Nafed will also adopt 4,000 hectares in Kerala for organic farming. Organic produce command a premium of 30 per cent over other more conventional produces. The agency will bring to play its reach to market the produces and to induct the latest technology into the business. The cooperative plans to set up agri-based knowledge parks. Information on the latest agricultural practices can be provided through these.

Umbrella organsiations at the state-level would help make Urban Cooperative Banks (UCB) sector “strong and vibrant”, said a report published by the Reserve Bank of India The report presents the findings of a Working Group formed by the RBI in July 2008 to determine whether there is a need for State-level umbrella organisations for UCBs, which are also commonly known as Credit Unions.
It found a high level of diversity among UCBs in terms of type, range and viability, finding both a large number of financially strong and non-viable UCBs. This lack of cohesion together with a inadequate infrastructure and limited options for raising capital, hampered the viability of the sector and its ability to compete against larger players such as banks.

Drawing upon the experience of Credit Union networks in the US, Australia and Europe, the Working Group stated it is “convinced” that Umbrella organisations could strengthen the sector by providing it with a shared infrastructure, such as a common ATM network, enabling UCBs to expand their range of services while boosting efficiencies and stability. They would also provide greater “comfort” to regulators, the report said.

Umbrella Orgnaisations should also provide an Emergency Liquidity Facility and a “Revival Fund” for struggling UCBs, said the Working Group.
The Working Group consulted UCBs, existing UCB organisations, members of the Task Force for Urban Cooperative Banks and regulators before making its recommendations.

NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): India’s co-operative major, NAFED has floated two separate tenders, inviting bids to import 40000 tonnes of pulses from Canada and Myanmar. The bidders asked to import pulses such as tur, urad and moong to be delivered in the next two months, the company said on its website. Application for the bids will be accepted up to January 18 and the decision would be taken on the same day, it said.

 According to the first tender, bidders have to source Canadian yellow peas grown in 2009 crop year. The shipment should reach latest by February 25 at the ports in Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam and Kolkata.

 
NEW DELHI: Delhi Government is in talks with NAFED to supply essential items at less than market rates. The items will include cooking oil, food 
grains, rice and atta and will be available in 300 centres across the city. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit made this announcement on Monday while addressing the state level Republic Day celebrations at the Ambdekar Stadium. While saying that the modalities for this are being finalized, Dikshit also recounted her government’s efforts to supply atta at Rs 14 per kg and pulses at subsidized rates through the Kendriya Bhandars. This was Dikshit’s 12th successive inspection Republic Day parade.
 
In a marked departure from her pet peeve of how migrants are exerting pressure on the city’s infrastructure, Dikshit emphasized that Delhi belongs to all Indians and it is mini-India in the true sense and how people coming from other states have significantly constributed to the development of Delhi.
 
Among the schemes she mentioned in her speech are Mission Convergence — an effort to give single window clearance for 46 welfare schemes of eight departments and the Laadli scheme — which she said has resulted in an increase in births of girls in the city to the tune of 1004 girls per 1,000 boys. She also mentioned the successful no-cracker campiagn. She also lauded the role of school eco clubs in increasing the green cover of Delhi.
 
“Delhi is ready to host the Commonwealth Games 2010 in October. Sixteen new modern stadia are being commissioned to organize the competitions apart from a large number of flyovers and FoBs. Metro will reach Gurgaon before Games,” the chief minister said.
 
She mentioned the improvement in the performance of government schoolchildren in the board examinations and the setting up of three new universities — Ambedkar University, Delhi Technological University and Law College University — as proof of her government’s commitment to education. Calling Delhi the hub of medical tourism, she talked about the 150 new modern ambulances that her government is in process of procuring. She also promised a power surplus by the Games when the projected demands is 4450 MW and the projected generation is 6,436 MW.

 A constitutional amendment Bill aimed at reforming the cooperative sector was today introduced in the Lok Sabha by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.The Constitution (111th Amendment) Bill, 2009 seeks to empower Parliament in respect of multi-state cooperative societies, and the State legislatures for other cooperative societies.The objective of the amendment is to keep cooperatives free of outside interference and to ensure their autonomy.Providing for a 21-member elective board of such cooperative societies, the Bill seeks to reserve one seat for Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe and two for women on each board.The board will also have two nominated members who will not have voting right.The Bill says no board can be superseded or suspended for more than six months. But a board which has no Government shareholding, or financial assistance or any guarantee can neither be superceded or suspended.The board and its office bearers will have a fixed term of five years and a new board will have to be elected before the expiry of the tenure of previous board.The Bill also provides for audit of accounts of cooperative societies by a firm appointed by general body of a society. The audit will be selected from a panel approved by a state Government. 

In the Devas district of Madhya Pradesh a huge scam running into crores has been exposed in the cooperative sector. In the Balgarh area Electric Housing construction Coperatives is located. The cooperative inspector colluded with the former chairman of the cooperative and a property dealer to sell the land of the cooperative worth crore. It is a 60 member cooperative society and Mr R L Parmar,the inspector hobnobbed with former chairman Mr Suresh Trivedi to sell the land. The cooperative had bought this 10 acre of land in 1981 at the cost of 2 crore. Mr Parmer and his associates forged the signature of members of the cooperatives and conducted an auction in which the buyer was already fixed beforehand. The auction was conducted so secretely that no one could get any wind of it. When the present chairman and members came to know about this they complained to ADM who has since instituted an investigation. No arrest has been made so far in this case.

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