Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar today unveiled Sahakar Pragya. The 45 new training modules of Sahakar Pragya of the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) will impart training to primary cooperative societies in rural areas of the country along with Lakshmanrao Inamdar National Cooperative Research and Development Academy.<br />'' <br />''On this occasion, Mr. Tomar called upon the cooperative sector to play a role in making the village-poor-farmers Atma Nirbhar. He said, today, India boasts a huge network of over 8.50 lakh cooperative societies with about 290 million members and around 94 per cent of the farmers are member of at least one cooperative society.<br />''<br />'' He said that cooperatives have a major role in Atma Nirbhar Bharat and they lend strength to farmers to minimize risks in agriculture and allied sectors and act as shield against exploitation by unscrupulous trader.<br />'' <br />''The Agriculture Minister said, NCDC has emerged as a financial powerhouse of giving the client cooperatives a wide range of products and services. So far, it has advanced loans to the tunes of 1.58 lakh crore rupees to cooperative societies of various categories across the country. He said, Sahakar Pragya is the latest in the series of farmer focused steps by NCDC.<br />