Ahmedabad: Union home and cooperation minister Amit Shah has asked Amul, the world’s largest cooperative organisation, to support agriculture and other activities to make agriculture self-reliant. He was speaking at a function to mark the 75 years of Amul in Anand on Sunday.
“The time has come for Amul to look ahead. Many issues related to agriculture and animal husbandry need to be included in the cooperative movement. It is time to make agriculture atmanirbhar,” Shah said.
He said that many farmers have turned to natural and organic farming in recent years, but they do not have a platform to market their produce.
“Amul and other cooperatives can develop an online platform and help such farmers sell their products throughout the world. Amul should not restrict itself to 36 lakh farmers and look proactively ahead,” he said, stressing the cooperative sector can play an important role in doubling farmers’ income.
He also said the cooperative sector would have a significant share when India becomes a $5 trillion economy and noted Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s contribution in setting up Amul.
The central government also launched Dairy Sahara, a scheme for extending financial assistance to the dairy sector through the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). The scheme’s outlay is Rs. 5,000 crore, but Shah said the outlay would be doubled to Rs. 10,000 crore if needed.
Several products and projects were unveiled at the function, which was also attended by dairying minister Parshottam Rupala, Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, among others.
Amul began its journey in 1946 with a daily milk collection of 250 litres. It now collects more than 3 crore litres of milk a day from 36 lakh dairy farmers across Gujarat.