A Brief guide about IFFCO - The multi-state cooperative society

IFFCO, short for the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited, is amongst the country’s largest cooperative societies, which is wholly owned by the Indian cooperatives. It was founded in 1967 with only 57 cooperatives. At this time, IFFCO comprises of a total of 36,000 Indian Cooperatives that have diverse business interests, such as Rural Telecom, General insurance, etc. US Awasthi (IFFCO MD) is always in the news because of the different initiatives launched by IFFCO regularly. Read on to know more about the vision and mission of IFFCO.

 Vision

The vision of IFFCO is to increase the income of farmers by assisting them in increasing their crop productivity by utilizing energy efficient fertilizers and maintaining the health of the environment. Plus, it also wants to make cooperative societies democratically and economically strong. It basically works in empowering rural India.

Mission

The mission of IFFCO is to make the lives of Indian farmers prosperous with the in-time supply of high-quality and reliable agricultural services and inputs in a way that is sustainable for the environment. IFFCO wants to take up activities that contribute to their welfare. Here is a little more about the mission:

• To give farmers supreme quality fertilizers at the correct time and in sufficient quantities so as to increase the productivity of their crops.
• It commits to the safety, health, forestry, and environment department to improve the community life quality.
•  To get, assimilate, and make use of efficient, cost-effective, and reliable technologies.

Vision 2020

Vision 2020 is the new corporate plan of IFFCO and is guided by the below-listed objectives:

• Achieving particular targets related to energy saving by modernizing current plants.
• Creating fresh fertilizer products and setting up agro-chemical projects and ago-processing units.
• Start a credit rating agency for the cooperative societies

You can also know more about the company by reading the IFFCO MD news  and his take on the recent developments.

Salient features of the Vision 2020 include becoming an international leader in production of fertilizers. It also includes bringing into force sustainable development strategies.

This was a brief about the company. IFFCO has always worked for the upliftment of farmers in India and has helped farmers by carefully assisting them all these years.

Overseas Initiatives by IFFCO under Dr US Awasthi’s Leadership

Indian Farmers Fertilisers Cooperative (IFFCO) was founded in November, 1967, and since then, IFFCO has worked towards its vision to augment the incremental incomes of farmers by helping them increase their crop productivity through the balanced use of energy efficient fertilisers, while maintaining environmental health and making cooperative societies economically and democratically strong for professionalised services to the farming community, to ensure an empowered rural India. Dr US Awasthi, the Managing Director and CEO of the organization joined IFFCO in February 1993 and committed himself to the cause of betterment of the nation’s farmers and has since then taken numerous initiatives that have benefitted a large part of our Indian society and still continue to take more and more initiatives to empower the common man of India.

Dr US Awasthi completed his chemical engineering from the renowned Banaras Hindu University and has over five decades of experience across multiple domains, including urea, chemical fertiliser, leadership, cooperatives, and project management. His leadership has enabled IFFCO to reach greater heights and has helped numerous people, employees, and customers alike, in the process.

With initiatives on even a global scale, there is no doubt that the company has the people’s welfare as its main interest. Here is a list of initiatives that were worked upon under Dr US Awasthi’s leadership:

Oman India Fertiliser Company

OMIFCO possesses a modern world scale, two-train ammonia-urea fertiliser manufacturing plant with ammonia and urea capacities of 2x1750 TPD and 2x2530 TPD, respectively, at the Sur Industrial Estate in the Sultanate of Oman.

Industries Chimiques Du Senegal

Industries Chimiques du Senegal (ICS) has the capacity to produce about 6,60,000 MT of phosphoric acid (P2O5) per year.

Jordan India Fertiliser Company

Jordan India Fertiliser Company (JIFCO) is a joint venture company incorporated in Amman, Jordan in which IFFCO (27%) and KIT (25%) together hold 52% equity, while JPMC holds 48% equity in JIFCO. The company has implemented a phosphoric acid complex with associated facilities at Eshidiya in Jordan, which has the annual capacity to produce 4,75,000 tonnes of P2O5 per annum.

Kisan International Trading Fze

Kisan International Trading (KIT) is a completely owned subsidiary of IFFCO. KIT has completed its 14th financial year of operations on 31st March 2019. KIT was set up as an international trading arm to help with handling imports, exports, and logistics support for various finished fertilisers, fertiliser raw materials, and intermediates to meet the demands of producers, customers, and distributors worldwide. It has since then developed excellent business linkages with leading manufacturers, direct sellers, and trade entities worldwide, and has evolved as a respectable international trading company in the very competitive business of fertilisers.

Dr US Awasthi is one of the best leaders in the industry who has given new meanings to CSR and has substantially contributed to the cause of empowering the farmers of our nation. You can use your email ID to follow Dr US Awasthi on his blog for more updates of the recent happenings at IFFCO.

IFFCO Bags First Position Among Fortune 500 Companies in India

IFFCO or the Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative keeps proving time and again that it is the largest fertilizer cooperative in India, and it has done so yet again. IFFCO has retained its “Rank 1” position among Fertilizer and Agro Chemicals industries in the nation in the Fortune 500 India rankings this year.

In addition to this, the firm stood at a decent 68^th position among the overall rankings of Fortune 500 companies in India, thus keeping up with its tradition of bagging top positions in the list every year. IFFCO happens to be the only cooperative in India, to have made it to the top 100 list, a matter in which all co-operative societies associated with IFFCO take enormous pride.

Crowd’s Reaction

IFFCO’s MD, Dr. U S Awasthi, shared this happy news with the public via twitter. Dr. Awasthi’s tweet was met with a warm reaction as people showered heaps of congratulatory messages. Besides expressing their happiness, some even deemed themselves fortunate for getting to work with the organization, under the able leadership of IFFCO’s MD.

Fortune 500 Rankings

The list of Fortune 500 companies in India is compiled every year by Fortune magazine’s Indian edition, which ranks the top 500 of the largest corporations within the country. These rankings are based on various aspects such as innovativeness, financial security, use of corporate assets, long-term investments, as well as global competitiveness.

Other Achievements

There have been other instances than the above-mentioned that have aided in establishing the fact that, be it domestic or global platforms, IFFCO as an organization remains undeniably good.  Recently the corporation was ranked first out of 300 global cooperatives in a report published by World Cooperative Monitor of International Cooperative Alliance.

IFFCO has been working towards ensuring food security in the country since the year 1967. The cooperative has established 5 huge plants across India and several global joint ventures such as KIT, Omifco, and JIFCO etc.

IFFCO also maintains a strong standing in International Fertilizer Association and a global board seat in International Cooperative Alliance. In the year 2017-18, IFFCO had an outcome of 84.79 lakhs MT fertilizers with a turnover of Rs. 20,788 crores.

IFFCO and Singapore-based technology firm iMandi join hands to help farmers

IFFCO has joined hands with Singapore-based technology firm, iMandi, and has started a platform for farmers with a total of investment of 80 crore, approx. This ecommerce platform provides an app known as IFFCO iMandi that looks after the needs of 5.5 crore farmers that are already a part of the cooperative.

Apart from this, there is also a web portal crafted for the same purpose, as mentioned by Dr US Awasthi. Email ID, Aadhaar numbers, and mobile numbers can be used to sign up with the portal.

iMandi

IFFCO eBazar, the subsidiary of IFFCO, has 26% stake in iMandi. The remainder, that is 74%, is what I-tech Holdings has, along with some other investors. US Awasthi has said that after they spearheaded the campaign throughout India to inform farmers about the use of digital and online transactions, IFFCO came up with the 'IFFCO iMandi' app. It is regarded as the destination for agri produce and inputs, insurance, loans, electronics, FMCG, and many other things.

The founder of iMandi Pte, VK Agarwal, said that USD 12 million were invested in the first phase of the project and a further USD 18 million were added for additional features. Plus, the farmers also have access ro the feature to sell their own produce.

Aim of iMandi

iMandi addresses the needs and requirements of the farmers with the objective of catering to the 55 million farmer user base. It was launched in Chandigarh for working towards the farmer’s community. The app can be easily downloaded from the App Store and Play Store for iOS phones and Androids and can be accessed via www.imandi.in as well.

Features of the app

The app has features for buying and selling, communication features like calling and chat, information or advisory content, and entertainment to keep the farmers more involved.

Farmers can purchase every IFFCO product, such as agro chemicals, seeds, and fertilisers, at discounted rates, and can also opt for free of cost delivery, right to their doors under the agri inputs marketplace.

IFFCO has always worked towards the upliftment of the Indian farmers and with this initiative, they have proved that their consistent efforts for the farmers continue to provide livelihood to countless farmers in India.

Major Products and Offerings of IFFCO iMandi

IFFCO iMandi is a digital platform that has been launched with an aim to bring all the farmers and cooperatives societies in India into contact. Dr US Awasthi, MD of IFFCO has mentioned that the objective of this portal is to offer a digital platform for communication as well as commerce between consumers and the different cooperative societies of IFFCO, as well as between two societies.

You can register with your Aadhaar card or mobile number and also connect your account to receive notifications and other communication on your email ID. Dr US Awasthi has further stated that this platform is available in 10 major languages to increase the ease of access for the population. These languages are:

• Hindi
• English
• Bengali
• Gujarati
• Marathi
• Punjabi
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Malayalam
• Kannada

Apart from being a digital platform where individuals and societies can come together, IFFCO iMandi also offers a number of products that consumers may purchase from the platform. The most popular of these products are:

Seeds

From 10 g packets to 5 kg bags, there are a number of seeds available at IFFCO iMandi for farmers to buy. The prices have been kept very affordable, and vary based on the seeds one buys.

Bio Fertiliser

Bio fertilisers contain live microorganisms, which help in the growth of a plant by increasing the supply of primary nutrients to the plant.

Plant Growth Promoters

These are substances that help by improving the overall health, growth, and development of plants. Plant growth promoters can either be produced synthetically or can be obtained from biological derivatives. These substances effect improvement in crop, productivity, and quality quite significantly.

Agro Chemicals

The word agrochemical has is a contraction of the term ‘agricultural chemical’. This is a chemical product that is used in agriculture and can refer to a number of products. In most cases however, it refers to pesticides, which include herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and nematicides. It may also include hormones, synthetic fertilizers, chemical growth agents, etc.

General Insurance

Insurance offered via IFFCO Tokio is also available here. The policies that one can buy from IFFCO iMandi are:

• Janata Suraksha Bima Yojna
• Jan Sewa Bima Yojna
• Car Insurance Policy
• Two Wheeler Insurance
• Accident Insurance
• Pravasi Bhartiya Bima Yojna
• Family Health Protector Policy
• Individual Health Protector Policy
• Overseas Travel Insurance Policy
• Home Suvidha Policy
• Trade Suvidha Policy
• Tractor Insurance