Cabinet okays plan to set up 200K primary agri co-ops in next five years

In a move to strengthen Indian cooperatives, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a plan to set up 200,000 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS), dairy and fishery cooperatives in all the uncovered villages and panchayats over the next five years.

At present, there are around 63,000 functional PACS in the country. A viable PACS will be set up in all the uncovered panchayats in the country, a viable dairy cooperative in each uncovered panchayat, or village, and a viable fishery cooperative in each coastal panchayat or village, or panchayats, or villages with large water bodies, an official statement said.

An action plan for implementation of the project shall be prepared by NABARD, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and National Fishery Development Board (NFDB).

The plan according to an official statement will be implemented by converging various schemes of the government in the spirit of ‘whole of government approach’.

The schemes that have been identified for the convergence are National Programme for Dairy Development and Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Fund under the department of animal husbandry and dairying, while from the department of fisheries, the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana and Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) have been picked up.

“This would provide the farmers members of these co-ops all over the country with requisite and backward and forward linkages to market their produce, enhance their incomes, obtain credit facilities and other services at the village level itself,” the official statement said.

In June last year, the Cabinet had approved the computerisation of PACS to bring transparency and accountability in their operations. About 63,000 functional PACS are being computerised with a total budget outlay of Rs 2,516 crore.