US Awasthi believes digital revolution will help bridge the gap between city and village

New Delhi: World's largest fertiliser cooperative society, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited or IFFCO's managing director Dr Udai Shanker Awasthi is considered as the tallest cooperative leader and no less a corporate head, a rural economist, an accomplished technocrat and above all a messiah for rural farmers in India. Under his visionary leadership, IFFCO has climbed to 37th position in the list of Fortune 500 companies. IFFCO is the only Cooperative Society to feature in the list.

Sharing the growth journey of IFFCO, Awasthi recounts how for the first time when he was offered a job with the fertiliser cooperative, the salary promised was much less than the amount he was already drawing with the existing company. However, he latched onto the job offer as he always wanted to take up such a role.

Little did he know that he had many obstacles awaiting him in form of excessive interference by the loan issuers, absorption of new technique, training workers and increasing production capacity of the plant. Nevertheless, he handled all the hurdles bravely and ensured IFFCO becomes the leader in its own right.

Dr. Awasthi is however not content with merely creating just one such institution, his dream is to replicate this model and build plethora of such islands of excellence. His vision is to make the cooperative model as the main life line of rural economy. Inspired with this dream he has ensured a digital platform could be prepared where farmers not only purchase agri-products but also advertise their sale produce.

The aim of his Indian digital cooperative platform is to certify that even an uneducated farmer can easily avail solution to his problem just by pressing a button. The objective behind the initiative is imparting training to farmers to enhance farm yield and train them in add-on skills and organic farming for proper utilisation of land.