IFFCO celebrates 50th anniversary at Kalol plant

Fertiliser cooperative major IFFCO today celebrated its 50th year at its first nutrient manufacturing facility and pledged to work towards empowering farmers and enhancing their income.
More than 1,200 cooperative members from the country and invited guests from overseas gathered at Kalol near Ahemdabad which houses urea unit.
IFFCO, the world's largest fertiliser cooperative, has five plants in India and three overseas. During last fiscal, the cooperative posted a turnover of Rs 22,500 crore, while produced 85 lakh tonnes and sold 110 lakh tonnes of fertilisers.
In his letter to IFFCO's MD U S Awasthi on its golden jubilee year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged IFFCOs contribution towards the growth of cooperative sector in the country.

Modi praised IFFCO's efforts towards digitization in agriculture, cashless transactions, training farmers for optimum use of fertilisers and farming technology which will be helpful in achieving his target of doubling farmers' income by year 2022.
IFFCO started its journey in 1967 with 57 cooperatives and now has over 36,000 cooperatives under its umbrella.

On this occasion, IFFCO also conferred the annual Sahakarita awards to honour the eminent co-operators for their contribution to the growing and evolving Indian cooperative movement.
Jyotindrabhai M Mehta was presented the Sahakarita Ratna Award and Ramesh Vaidya was presented with the Sahakarita Bandhu Award.
Guest from Fertiliser Association of India (FAI), International Fertiliser Association (IFA), International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and eminent personalities like Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director Maruti Suzuki India Limited, Eisuke Shiozaki, Chairman & Managing Director, Mitsubishi Corporation India, Tsuyoshi Nagano, President & Group CEO, Tokio Marine Holdings and Ariel Guarco (ICA) were also present during the Golden Jubilee celebrations.

IFFCO chairman Balwinder Singh Nakai said: "In 1967, we started with 57 cooperatives, and today with over 36,000 Indian Cooperatives, we are a force to reckon with, touching lives of over five crore farmers and continuously working towards building a better world for them."
IFFCO is truly an organization of the farmers, by the farmers and for the farmers, he added.
On its 50th year, it conducted training programmes for farmers at 125 locations across the country.
"We have initiated a 24x7 call-centre that caters to Indias varied farming groups in 12 Indian languages, eliminating the language barrier for their free communication," the IFFCO managing director said.

IFFCO has introduced yet another platform for the farmers and their families called IFFCOYUVA. This is a platform especially for farmers children and it provides them with the opportunity to acquire necessary skills and educates them, and get a platform to connect job seekers with job providers.
It has also initiated rural health program in collaboration with a Start Up called Gramin Health to ensure that health, wealth, and education for farmers and their families.
Apart from its core fertiliser business, IFFCO is engaged in general insurance to rural telecom and rural retail businesses.