Seminar on “21st Century Marketing Strategies for Cooperatives"

Marking the International year of a Cooperatives 2012, a seminar on “21st Century Marketing Strategies for Cooperatives” was conducted at Jubliee Hall, Hyderabad by Department of Cooperation in collaboration with GoCoop Solutions and Services Pvt. Ltd. The Seminar was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Minister for Cooperation, Sri Kasu Venkata Krishna Reddy along with Sri IYR Krishna Rao, Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture & Cooperation, Sri Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, President, National Cooperative Union India and Sri Praveen Reddy ,President, Mulkanoor Cooperative Society, IFFCO Board Member.

The Hon’ble Minister, while addressing the gathering of over 200 delegates, has emphasized the need for providing fair market prices for the produce of the farmer and their artisans. He has opined that both producers & Consumers are being adversely affected due to the exploitation by the commission agents and other middle men. He said that IT – Based Marketing Organizations are the need of the hour for the Cooperative Sector to address these challenges. The Hon’ble Minister has called for a close collaboration between the Department of Cooperation and Department of marketing with renewed focus on Marketing.
Sri IYR Krishna Rao, Special Chief Secretary to Govt. Dept. of Agriculture & Cooperation, emphasized that Marketing is more complex as compared to the production. He further added that today, new opportunities from globalization should be leveraged for Cooperative Marketing. Talking about ITC e-choupal initiative, he suggested that marketing centers should be developed in to knowledge centers. Leveraging internet & Communication technology, farmers can effectively deal with issues like commodity price fluctuations.

Sri I.S. Srinaresh, Commissioner & Registrar for Cooperative Societies, explained the different initiatives taken up by the Department on the occasion of International Year of Cooperatives 2012. He suggested that the Cooperative Societies should leverage Organizations like GoCoop to improve the marketing capabilities.

Sri Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, President NCUI talked about changes in National & International Markets.

Sri Siva Devireddy, Managing Director, GoCoop Solutions and Services Pvt. Ltd. Explained how internet can be leveraged by rural based Cooperative Societies to sell their products to regional, national and Global Markets. He also showcased the GoCoop.com online platform for Cooperatives and Self-help Groups (SHGs) which has over 1700+ Co-ops registered and is providing marketing and collaboration services to promote the Cooperative organizations.

Sri Praveen Reddy, President, Mulkanoor Cooperative Society, Karimnagar district, explained about how they are providing loans, marketing and welfare services under one umbrella.

Sri Kadmiel, Managing Director, MARKFED answered questions raised by the delegates. Sri Arjuna Rao, Additional Registrar, MD APCOB, and representative from SERP also participated in the seminar.

Sri Tashi Wangdu, CEO, Tibetan Cooperative Federation of India, Sri Md. Ali Rafath, MD,APDDCF, RegionalDirector, NCDC explained marketing efforts of their organizations. Both these Organizations stated that they e-Marketing Societies provided by GoCoop.

The Commissioner of Cooperatives thanked the organizers and delegates for conducting a successful seminar on 21st Century Marketing Strategies.