New Delhi: Parshottam Rupala, Honble Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India on Tuesday released a first-of-its-kind handbook on formation and promotion of Fish Farmer Producer Organizations (FFPOs) under the flagship Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).
Sundeep Kumar Nayak, Managing Director, National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Government of India were also present on the occasion.
Parshottam Rupala, Honble Minister shared that PMMSY, a flagship scheme for fishers provides financial and technical assistance for setting up FFPOs to economically empower the fish farmers and help enhance their bargaining power to make them atmanirbhar (self-reliant) as envisaged by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji.”
“We have been holding various awareness and sensitization programmes for promotion of FFPOs in the past several months. The NCDC has pioneered registration of FFPO cooperatives in the country, said Nayak.
The Department of Fisheries has kept a target of forming 500 FFPOs in the country, of which 50 FFPOs will be formed by the NCDC in the first year under the Cooperative Societies Act, Swain added.
The handbook provides road map for setting up of a FFPO as cooperative and spells out simple steps to be taken by Community Based Business Organization engaged by NCDC.
The Laxmanrao Inamdar National Academy for Cooperative Research and Development and Regional Training Centre of NCDC have conducted series of awareness and training programmes for fisher-men and women across the country at state and district level during the current year, said the statement.
