The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), an apex financing institution under the newly created Union Ministry of Cooperation has sanctioned Rs 6836.48 crore to Haryana for paddy procurement under Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations for Kharif marketing season 2021-22.
An amount of Rs.1,000 crore has already been disbursed in two tranches and the balance will be disbursed shortly, said NCDC Managing Director Sundeep Nayak here.
This is for the first time, since its creation a few months ago, the Union Ministry of Cooperation has moved in to support farmers for food grain procurement under MSP operation via its financial behemoth, the NCDC. The timely step also aims to give relief to farmers already under stress due to Covid-19 pandemic. NCDC aims to realize the vision of the Union Home and Cooperation Minister, Shri Amit Shah articulated in a mega cooperative conclave held on 25 September 2021.
Haryana has already started procurement of paddy at MSP from October 3.
“This timely step will ensure help to the State agencies start paddy procurement operations through cooperatives immediately and will provide the much-needed support to farmers, particularly during Covid-19 times to sell their produce at the government notified minimum support price (MSP)”, said DK Singh, Secretary Cooperation in Govt of India.
In other words, cooperatives will use these short-term loans to procure food grains from farmers on behalf of State procurement agencies for making instant payment to farmers so that they do not have to wait for their dues.
A premier ISO 9001:2015 certified financial institution exclusively for cooperatives, NCDC has been playing a very crucial role in supporting MSP operations in the country and as on date it has cumulatively disbursed Rs. 98,071 crore to undertake MSP operations throughout the country and Rs. 20,844 crore alone to Haryana.
Apart from this, the focus of the Corporation, with its pan-India presence having 18 regional offices, is on planning, promoting and financing programmes of agricultural inputs, processing, storage and marketing of agriculture produce, capacity building and supply of consumer goods in rural areas to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Sahakar Se Samridhi Tak’.
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