The Ministry of Cooperatives has urged all the Cooperative Federations, including the National Federation of Sugar Cooperatives Factories Ltd. (NFCSF), to direct their member factories to engage with farmers and grassroots-level workers regularly for seamless functioning, better communication and sustained information flow.
The Ministry has asked the Federations to ensure that Social media networking accounts, such as Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, which have seen a huge penetration among the rural population, are actively used by the member factories to stay connected with the farmers and farm workers.
These platforms are expected to serve as a two-way communication channel between farmers and factories: not only to inform farmers about government policies and initiatives but also to gather valuable feedback on local issues, challenges, and production-related matters.
While speaking to ChiniMandi, Prakash NaikNavare, MD of NFCSF, said that NFCSF has already been working on this onerous work for several months. “The Ministry of Cooperation wants to get all the important stakeholders- sugar mills, cane farmers and the Associations under one roof, for smooth flow of information. We have been working on this for several months, and our Social media sites are already engaged in this work. We have made steady progress in this field, which can be seen from our regular posts”, he added.
Naiknavare urged member factories in Maharashtra, which are still to work on this, to open the Social media sites at the earliest and start daily engagements with the farmers.
“Our Head Office in Delhi has been assisting several of our factories on how to operate these social networking sites. In fact, we are in touch with several farmer bodies in Maharashtra to propagate the same”, he said.
According to sources, the Ministry is actively working on this matter, and regular review meetings are underway. At a recent review meeting, both the Minister of States (Shri Krishan Pal and Shri Murlidhar Mohol) were present at the meeting.
The meeting discussed measures to strengthen media and communication strategies to enhance the overall visibility of the cooperative movement. The emphasis was given on expanding outreach, using regional and vernacular languages for inclusive messaging.
The Federation was asked to regularly disseminate information about its activities to 8.5 lakh cooperative societies through WhatsApp, emails, SMS, and physical communication methods, and share success stories of cooperative societies benefitting from Ministry schemes, including physical case studies.
