The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Focus on rehabilitating tsunami-hit co-op members

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 05, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Focus on rehabilitating tsunami-hit co-op members

A.V.Ragunathan

Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations embarks on study

MEET: Wim Polman, Food and Agricultural Organisation Representative (right), Bhagwati Prasad, Chief Executive, National Cooperative Unions of India on the microphone and W.I. Khan, Programme Adviser, Network for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia and Pacific ( left), at a workshop at Cuddalore on Saturday.

CUDDALORE: The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has embarked upon a study on assessing how members of the tsunami-affected agricultural cooperatives in Tamil Nadu could be rehabilitated.

Wim Polman, FAO Representative, told The Hindu here on Saturday that the study, initiated in partnership with the cooperative sector, would focus on the projects that had the potential to enhance the livelihood of the affected members.

Similar exercises

The FAO carried out similar exercises in Sri Lanka and Thailand. For the latter, 20 viable projects had been endorsed for implementation. Mr. Polman stressed that the focus of the FAO was to improve the lot of the cooperative members and not cooperative organisations.

He pointed out that soon after the tsunami, the relief works were taken up in right earnest.

However, when it came to rehabilitation there were "gaps and mismatch," due to lack of coordination among Ministries of Fisheries and Agriculture and the cooperative sector. Therefore, the FAO would try to bridge the gaps by bringing about better coordination among the departments concerned.

In the aftermath of the tsunami, several cooperative members had fallen into debt. It had become essential to bail them out through capacity-building by encouraging them to take up projects that would fetch them dividends. In this endeavour, the cooperatives were partners as well as the channels to reach out the target groups, particularly the disabled women. Mr. Polman further said the FAO was educating the cooperative leaders on how efficiently the situation could be tackled.

However, he said the FAO would not make any commitment on the financial front, because already India had made it clear that it could do without external help.

Even then, the projects that were considered feasible would be placed before the United Nations' agencies and the donor non-governmental organisations for endorsement. Once approved, necessary follow-up measures would be taken up. Mr. Polman attended the two-day workshop on "Rehabilitation of tsunami-affected agricultural cooperatives in Tamil Nadu" that concluded here on Saturday.

Representatives from 17 coastal cooperatives, having a membership of about 35,000, presented projects on vermiculture, floriculture, poultry, raising herbs, garment making and so on.

W.I. Khan, programme adviser, Network for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia and Pacific, FAO, Bangkok, Bhagwati Prasad, Chief Executive of the National Cooperative Union of India, K.S. Kutty, Principal, Natesan Institute of Cooperative Management, Chennai, and A. Sankaralingam, Joint Registrar (Cooperatives), Cuddalore, participated.

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