Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah today launched the e-auction portal NAFEX.in of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) in New Delhi. Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Minister of State for Cooperation Krishan Pal Gurjar, Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation Dr. Ashish Kumar Bhutani, Chairman, NAFED Jethabhai Ahir and several dignitaries were present on the occasion.
Addressing the programme, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah said that NAFED has today launched four major initiatives, namely NAFEX.in, DRISHTI, ERP and NAFED Kalyan. He said that NAFEX.in and the other initiatives are extremely important because in 2014, NAFED was on the verge of closure, but due to these efforts, NAFED is today serving more than 74 lakh farmers of the country with a turnover of ₹30,000 crore and a profit of ₹500 crore. Shah said that when NAFED was in deep financial crisis, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji decided to run it with complete transparency. He said that the Government of India provided financial assistance and once again placed NAFED on a strong footing.
Amit Shah said that today NAFED has registered a significant increase in both production and procurement. To make the country self-reliant in the pulses sector, NCCF and NAFED will have to move ahead with greater speed towards purchasing every single grain of pulses directly from farmers. This will ensure fair and remunerative prices for farmers, automatically increase the area under pulses cultivation, and make the country self-reliant in pulses.
