Two lakh agri credit societies, fishery-dairy coops in next 5 yrs

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved setting up of 2 lakh new Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) and dairy-fishery cooperatives in uncovered villages and panchayats over the next five years to strengthen cooperative movement in the country. At present, there are around 63,000 functional PACS out of nearly 99,000 PACS across the country. There are still 1.6 lakh Panchayats without PACS and nearly 2 lakh Panchayats without any dairy cooperative society.

The Cabinet approved steps to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country and deepen its reach to the grassroot levels. The Ministry of Cooperation has formulated a plan to establish viable PACS in each uncovered Panchayat, viable dairy cooperatives in each uncovered Panchayat/ village and viable fishery cooperatives in each coastal Panchayat/ village as well as Panchayat/ village having large water bodies, an official statement said.

"Initially, 2 lakh PACS/ dairy/ fishery cooperatives would be established in the next five years. The action plan for implementation of the project shall be prepared by NABARD, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and National Fishery Development Board (NFDB)," the statement said.

The ministry seeks to strengthen the existing PACS/dairy/fishery cooperatives through the convergence of various schemes of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying.

The following schemes have been identified for convergence under the current plan --National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD), and Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) under the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying; Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), and Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development (FIDF) under the Department of Fisheries.

The Cabinet decision would help in providing farmer members with requisite forward and backward linkages to market their produce, enhance their income, and obtain credit facilities and other services at the village level itself. Primary cooperative societies that cannot be revived will be identified for winding up, and new ones would be established in their area of operation, the statement said.

The establishment of new PACS/ dairy/ fishery cooperative societies would generate employment opportunities in rural areas. A high-level Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), under the chairmanship of Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, has been constituted. Minister of Agriculture, Minister for Fishery, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, and secretaries concerned are also in the panel among others.

The committee is empowered to take necessary steps for smooth implementation of the plan. Committees at National, State and District levels have also been constituted to ensure focused and effective execution of the action plan. To increase the viability of PACS and diversify their business activities, the model bylaws of PACS have already been prepared by the ministry. The bylaws will enable PACS to undertake more than 25 business activities. The model bylaws have been circulated to all the States/ UTs on January 5, 2023 for their adoption by PACS after making suitable changes as per respective State Cooperative Acts.

A national cooperative database is being prepared by the Cooperation ministry where country-wide mapping of cooperatives at Panchayat and village level is being carried out. A database of PACS has been developed in January 2023 and a database of primary dairy/ fishery cooperative societies would be developed by end of February.

This exercise would provide a list of Panchayats and villages not served by PACS, dairy and fishery cooperative societies. The national cooperative database and the online central portal would be utilised for real-time monitoring of the formation of new cooperative societies. PACS/dairy/ fishery cooperative societies would be linked with their respective district and state-level federations. According to the statement, the PACS --around 98,995 in number and having a member base of 13 crore --constitute the lowest tier of the Short-Term Cooperative Credit (STCC) structure in the country, providing short-term and medium-term credit and other input services like seed, fertilizer and pesticide distribution to members. These are refinanced by NABARD through 352 District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and 34 State Cooperative Banks (StCBs). Primary dairy cooperative societies, around 1,99,182 in number and having around 1.5 crore members, are engaged in procurement of milk from farmers, providing milk testing facilities, cattle feed sale and extension services to members. Primary fishery cooperative societies, around 25,297 in number and having around 38 lakh members, provide marketing facilities, assist in procuring fishing equipment, fish seed and feed, besides credit facilities to members. "However, there are still 1.6 lakh Panchayats without PACS and nearly 2 lakh Panchayats without any dairy cooperative society," the statement said. In June last year, the government approved the computerisation of PACS to increase their efficiency, bring transparency and accountability to their operations. About 63,000 functional PACS are being computerised with a total budget outlay of Rs 2,516 crore which includes a central share of Rs 1,528 crore.