More than 22 top-notch faculties of cooperative training institutes run by the apex cooperative body NCUI landed at the office of the leading farmers’ cooperative IFFCO Thursday to participate in the valedictory address, scheduled to be delivered by the cooperative behemoth’s MD Dr U S Awasthi. Awasthi’s indisposition led to Rakesh Kapur Joint MD filling up the gap and he did it brilliantly.
Delivering the valedictory address he said we are 6 lakhs cooperatives but there are only a few which are reckoned. There is as much need of training as of identifying the training-needs of an area. He quoted instances from his personal experiences to prove the point. Buying a tractor or farm equipment for small land-holdings is not smart but buying such equipment to lease them out to a large number of farmers so that the machines are optimally used is smart, Kapur added.
Kapur also focused on opportunities for cooperatives and referred to CSR in this context. Corporates have compulsions of spending under the CSR head but they are city based. Cooperatives with their reach in rural areas can run several ventures such as drinking water projects, irrigation-projects, health centers; there is no dearth of fund, he reminded.
Overwhelmed by the swanky IFFCO office in the posh area of Saket which shares its neighbourhood with hot shopping destinations such as Select City Walk and Metropolitan Mall, the faculty members of ICM and RICM also shared their experiences.
Ms Neelu of RICM Ahmadabad said ”we had come here carrying parent attitude and we leave with an adult attitude. Sham Kumar of ICM Hyderabad said we came with an attitude of what is there to learn. But after the training we feel the difference. NP Ojha of ICM Patna and Vijay Laxmi of ICM Trivenduram also shared their experiences. They all profusely thanked the master trainer Nanditesh Nilay.
Speaking on the occasion Nilay himself confessed that he was bowled over by the sheer level of professionalism at work at IFFCO reception. As a person not connected with the cooperative sector in the past he must have imagined it like a dog-eared book, quipped one of the participants sitting with this correspondent.
NCUI and NCCT officers led by Dr Dinesh and Mohan Mishra were also present on the occasion. The NCCT had organized the TTT Programme from 7-10 September, 2015 in collaboration with ISTD Delhi Chapter & TraNc for the faculty members of RICMs and ICMs.
