Context: Nano fertilizers produced by IFFCO and dairy products from Amul will be among the first few products that are expected to be exported by the first-ever National Export Co-operative Society that was approved by the Union Cabinet on January 11. The Society’s registration will be complete in the next few days and the first consignment will be exported in three months.
About National Export Cooperative Society
- National multi-state cooperative export society will be established under the Multi State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002,
- The export cooperative will have five promoters — Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the Amul brand’s promoter; National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED); National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC); Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO); and Krishak Bharati Co-operative Limited (KRIBHCO).
- The proposed national multi-state cooperative export society, to be established under the Multi State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002, will have a paid-up capital of Rs 2,000 crore. Initially, these five promoters will invest Rs 100 crore each.
- This will be the largest of the three proposed national cooperative societies to be established under the MSCS Act
Scope of the Society
- The focus will be on exporting the surplus available in the country in the cooperative sector.
- The Society will be different from the Export Promotion Council under the Ministry of Commerce that only acts as a facilitator and provides information about the potential markets that can be tapped for a particular product.
- Society will provide end-to-end services to the cooperatives. It will open foreign bank accounts and complete all the formalities, including necessary permissions for exporting a product.
- Society will hire consultants in foreign countries who will help expand its footprint across continents
Benefits
- Society will provide thrust to exports from cooperative sector by acting as an umbrella organisation for carrying out and promoting exports.
- It will help unlocking export potential of Indian cooperatives in global markets.
- It will also help cooperatives in getting benefits of various export related schemes and policies of different ministries of Government of India in a focussed manner through ‘Whole of Government Approach’.
- This will also help in achieving the goal of “Sahakar-se-Samriddhi” through the inclusive growth model of cooperatives where the members would benefit both by a realization of better prices through the export of their goods and services and by dividends distributed out of the surplus generated by the society.
- Higher exports through the society will increase production of goods and services by the cooperatives at various levels thus leading to more employment in the cooperative sector.
- Processing of goods and enhancing the services to match international standards will also generate additional employment.
- Increased export of cooperative products would, in turn, also promote “Make in India” thus leading to Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Multi State Seed Cooperative Society
- The proposed national multi-state seed cooperative will have an authorised share capital of Rs 500 crore. However, it will be established with an initial paid-up share capital of Rs 250 crore. It will have five promoters. These include three national cooperatives —IFFCO, KRIBHCO and NAFED — and two statutory bodies — National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and the NCDC.
National-level cooperative society for organic products
- The proposed national-level cooperative society for organic products will have an authorised share capital of Rs 500 crore, an official said. Five cooperative bodies — GCMMF; NAFED; and National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Limited (NCCF); NDDB; and NCDC — have come forward to take the initiative of the ministry to set up an organic cooperative society. The society will have an authorised share capital of Rs 500 crore. It will have an initial paid-up share capital of Rs 100 crore.
About Nano Urea
- Nano urea is a fertilizer patented and sold by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO).
- It has been approved by the government for commercial use because of its potential to substantially reduce the import bill.
- A small bottle (500 ml) of nano urea is equivalent to one 50-kg bag of granular urea currently used by farmers.
- IFFCO’s nano urea contains nitrogen, an element critical for plant development, in the form of granules that are a hundred thousand times finer than a sheet of paper. At this nano scale, which is about a billionth of a meter, materials behave differently than in the visible realm.
- Chemically packaged urea is 46% nitrogen, which means a 45-kg sack contains about 20 kg of nitrogen.
- Contrastingly, nano urea sold in 500-ml bottles has only 4% nitrogen (or around 20 g).
- How urea works:
- Urea is highly water soluble and already reaches the lowest form of concentration when absorbed.
- Unlike the coarse particles that farmers throw onto the soil during sowing, the nano particle form of nano urea, when applied on to the leaves, stimulates enzymes such as nitrase and nitrite reductase, which help plants metabolize nitrogen.
- Different parts of the plant contain nitrogen in varying proportions and because nano particles are so small and numerous, they have a lot more surface area relative to their volume, compared with the millimeter-size grains of urea that plants are exposed to nearly 10,000 times more in nitrogen.