Prime Highlights
- NAFED will dedicate 1% of its annual profits to higher education scholarships and career support for farmers’ children.
- Amit Shah pushed for direct procurement from farmers, aiming to remove middlemen and improve farm incomes.
Key Facts
- NAFED launched four initiatives, including NAFED Kalyan, a scholarship programme for farming families.
- India imports 6–7 million tonnes of pulses and 15–16 million tonnes of edible oils annually to meet domestic demand.
Background
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched four new initiatives of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and announced that the cooperative will reserve one percent of its annual profits for higher education scholarships and career development of children from farmer families.
The four initiatives include Nafex.in, an agricultural e-auction platform; Drishti, an inventory management system, NAFED’s Enterprise Resource Planning Solution; and NAFED Kalyan, a dedicated scholarship programme for farmers’ children.
Shah called for the elimination of middlemen in agricultural trade and urged both NAFED and the National Cooperative Exports Limited (NCCF) to procure pulses and oilseeds directly from farmers.
He set a two-year deadline for farmers to sell their produce directly to the two cooperatives and receive payments without going through intermediaries.
The minister pointed out that while pulse and oilseed output had grown in recent years, the country had not yet achieved self-sufficiency. He noted that minimum support prices were failing to reach farmers on the ground.
India currently imports six to seven million tonnes of pulses and 15 to 16 million tonnes of edible oils each year to meet domestic demand that local production cannot cover.
Shah said direct procurement by cooperatives would cut out traders who currently stand between growers and buyers, ensuring that price benefits flow to the actual cultivators rather than being absorbed along the supply chain.
The NAFED Kalyan scholarship is aimed at easing the financial burden on farming households seeking higher education for their children, linking institutional profit directly to rural welfare.
The launch marks a wider push to strengthen cooperative-led agricultural trade and reduce India’s dependence on imported farm commodities through better farmer support and direct market access.
