The 63rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) was held. Welcoming the participants Bijender Singh, chairman of NAFED, thanked the Union Minister of Agriculture, Narendra Singh Tomar, MoS for Agriculture, Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala, Secretary (A&C), Additional Secretary (A&C) and other senior officers in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for their constant guidance and support to NAFED. He assured the government that NAFED would strive hard to accomplish the tasks assigned by the government to the best of its ability
The chairman of NAFED informed that with the government’s support at all levels and right policy decisions at the level of the Board of Directors, support of the member societies and hard work put in by the Managing Director, officers and employees, the federation is now continuing on the path of progress both financially and in providing better services to the farming community by implementing various schemes of the government of India.
He further informed the general body that NAFED has been generating profits for the last three years accumulating to Rs 670 crores, which is a remarkable achievement. It was possible with the support from all concerned and various new initiatives taken by NAFED during these years.
He also announced that the Board of Directors has approved the highest ever dividend of 20 per cent to the member federations, societies for the first time in the history of NAFED.
Sanjeev Kumar Chadha, Managing Director, tabled a brief of activities carried out by the federation during 2019-20. During the year, it achieved a turnover of Rs 16,280.98 crores with a net profit of Rs 165.65 crores. The federation continued to be one of the central nodal agencies of the government for procurement of oil seeds and pulses under price support scheme, in addition to maintaining buffers of pulses on its behalf. During 2019-20, a quantity of 33,03,157 MT of oil seeds and pulses valuing over Rs 16,066 crores was procured, which was relatively lower as compared to last year due to lower arrivals at PSS procurement centers on account of firming up of prices.
Similarly, NAFED procured a quantity of 1,11,697 MT of pulses valuing over Rs 648 crores to maintain buffers on behalf of the government to serve any emergent requirement in the country. NAFED also continued supplying milled pulses to the Army, Central Para Military Forces and to states under different welfare schemes such as PDS, MDM and ICDS.
The MD of NAFED informed that supplies of various agri-commodities, household items, articles towards humanitarian aid/emergency relief material were also made to countries such as Iran, Namibia, Mynamar and Bangladesh worth over Rs 15.50 crores at the behest of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.
During 2019-20, NAFED undertook seed business worth over Rs 27.44 crores, which was distributed to states across the country under various schemes.
The federation also procured 58,288 MT of onion valuing Rs 76 crores for creating a buffer stock under PSF in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Telangana. During the year, NAFED also stepped in and procured 15,589 MT of apples of different varieties with a value of Rs 69.38 crores in Jammu and Kashmir under Market Invention Scheme (MIS).
He added that NAFED was also made part of the National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) for eradicating the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis prevalent in livestock and was appointed as Programme Logistic Agency (PLA).
The Managing Director thanked all concerned, especially the Minister of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare and Secretary, Agriculture, for the valuable guidance and cooperation, which enabled NAFED to achieve new heights.