Lalitpur, June 20: State Minister for Agriculture and Co-operative Baldev Sharma Majgaiya today said that co-operative movement could play a crucial role in poverty alleviation and national development.

“Co-operative movement can be a key to transform the agro-based and village driven Nepalese economy,” Majgaiya said addressing a function organised on the occasion of the 8th anniversary of National Co-operative Federation of Nepal (NCFN) here this morning. “Co-operatives are the ideal institutions to cater to the loan requirements of the poor farmers.”

Majgaiya said that the co-operatives would help increase agricultural productivity, develop markets and generate employment. In reference to the mushrooming of co-operatives in the recent years Majgaiya said, “The mushrooming of the co-operatives is not a problem in itself. The point is to make sure that they do not involve in duplicity,” Majgaiya said.

Majgaiya said that excessive individualism, lack of faith in others and no-risk attitude were the major challenges facing co-operative movement in Nepal. He stressed on training and travel to overcome these problems.

Executive Chairman of NCFN Deepak Prakash Baskota said that there was a lot of confusion about co-operatives and co-operative movement in Nepal, adding the function would be instrumental in doing away with the confusion.

Co-operative movement is based on the principles of self-help, self-responsibility, autonomy, democracy, equity, equality and solidarity, Baskota said. NCFN is going to institute an award to honour the best co-operator annually to attract people to co-operatives, he added.

National Planning Commission member Dr. Hari Shankar Tripathi lauded the government’s initiatives towards establishing co-operative bank. The government has allocated 10 million rupees to establish the co-operative bank and 20 million rupees to set up the cold storage in the budget for the Fiscal Year 2000/2001.

Member Secretary of National Co-operative Development Board Ram Chandra Nainabasti said that co-operative movement in Nepal had not been much fruitful despite having a history of almost five decades and stressed on concerted efforts to push it ahead.

Welcoming the participants, Om Prakash Sharma said that co-operative movement had gained momentum following the advent of multiparty democracy in 
1990.

The co-operative movement that began in 1956 in Nepal presently claims of over two million shareholders.