Annual Report 2009-2010 - Department of Agriculture & Co-operation

also provides academic and financial support to
Junior Cooperative Training Centres in the
country. Junior Cooperative Training Centres are
financed by state cooperative unions/state
governments. From the year 2004-05, the DAC
has introduced a new component in the Central
Sector Scheme (CSS) for assistance to Junior
Training Centres (JCTCs) in conducting training
programmes.
16.5 Cooperative Education and Training
Activities in the North Eastern Region: The
Government of India is implementing a special
scheme for the Intensification of Cooperative
Education in Cooperatively Under-Developed
States, including the North Eastern region,
through the NCUI with 100 per cent financial
assistance. NCUI has established eight field
projects, namely, Aizwal (Mizoram), Bishnupur,
West Imphal (Manipur), Jorhat and Kamrup
(Assam), Kohima (Nagaland), Shillong
(Meghalaya), and West Sikkim, operated in the
North Eastern region. These projects have made
a tangible impact in improving the income of
members of self-help groups and cooperatives.
During the year 2009-10 (up to 30 November
2009), 0.35 lakh people were imparted education
and training through these projects.
16.6 Women Development Activities: With the
overall objective of bringing women into the
cooperative fold from the grass roots level
through an informal approach, revitalising and
developing women's participation in group
activities, and improving the socio-economic
conditions of women of selected blocks, the
NCUI is now operating four exclusive women's
development projects, located at Shimoga
(Karnataka), Berhampur (Orissa), Imphal
(Manipur), and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), under
the Special Scheme of Intensification of
Cooperative Education in the Cooperatively
Under-Developed States. Besides, each field
project has a special women's development
component. Under this, women are organised
into self-help groups to help them to develop
thrift habits. Women are also given training to
undertake income-generating activities with the
help of their own resources or through borrowing
from cooperatives. The project personnel help
them in marketing their produce in the local
market, and by organising fairs and exhibitions.
A womens' educational and development project
is operating in the North Eastern region at East
Imphal, in the state of Manipur. During the year
2009-10 (up to 30 November 2009), 1.17 lakh
people were imparted education and training
through these projects.
16.7 Cooperative Development Programmes
through the National Cooperative Development
Corporation (NCDC): The Government of India
implements its cooperative development
programmes, inter alia, through the National
Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).
The programmes/schemes being implemented
through the NCDC are: i) Integrated Cooperative
Development Projects in selected districts, ii)
assistance to cooperative marketing, processing
and storage, etc., programmes in cooperatively
under-developed/least developed states/UTs,
and iii) share capital participation in growers'/
weavers' cooperative spinning mills under the
restructured Central Sector Scheme. It has been
decided that under this scheme, the subsidy
component will be provided by the Government
of India and the loan component will be arranged
by the NCDC through its own sources.
16.8 NCDC is a non-equity based development
financing institution, created exclusively for the
cooperative sector with the objective of planning
and promoting programmes for the production,
processing, marketing, storage, export, and
import of agricultural produce, food stuff, and
certain notified commodities and services, on
cooperative principles. With the amendment of
the NCDC Act in 2002, its scope of activities has
been widened to cover livestock, cottage and
village industries, handicrafts, rural crafts, and
Cooperation
91