IFFCO Managing Director Dr U S Awasthi is embarking upon a massive farmers connect programme on the occasion of the golden Jubilee celebrations of the cooperative behemoth. The celebrations would start from 3rd of November i.e. from coming Thursday from the first fertilizer unit of IFFCO set up at Kalol near Ahmadabad way back in the 70’s.
“I would leave everything behind and would be meeting the real owners of IFFCO for the entire year”, Awasthi said meaning ordinary farmers connected to IFFCO for decades.
“I would meet each one of them as usually a gap between the real owners (farmers) and the top leadership develops in all organizations, Dr. Awasthi said.
In effective terms it means meeting 5 crore of them as answering a query recently IFFCO’s Media Head Harshendra Vardhan put the number of farmers connected to IFFCO at 5 crore.
Dr Awasthi plans to visit the entire lot-all 39 thousand and 800 co-op societies connected to IFFCO. This explains MD’s bid to seek the Board’s permission as he would be away from the headquarters almost for the entire year given the number of farmers he has to meet.
“I want to hear the voice of the last member and want to convince them that IFFCO belongs to them, said MD with a determination in his eyes.
We hardly meet them as even in our AGMs only 900 to 1000 of them are able to participate. To make them understand that they are the real owner of a brand IFFCO is now a mission, said Awasthi who has made a detailed itinerary for himself for the entire year.
IFFCO MD plans to undertake more than 110 meetings in the centenary year. He is also believed to have delegated all his routine work to Rakesh Kapoor, the Joint MD and others. He has also sought the Board’s approval for his ambitious farmers’ connect campaign, Indian Cooperative has learnt.
Meanwhile, the preparations for”Opening of Golden Jubilee Celebrations” at its Kalol unit in Gujarat are almost final. This coming Wednesday, the entire IFFCO Board is landing at Kalol to hold the Board meeting followed by a grand opening the following day. There would also be a press conference for media on Thursday.