The Union Cabinet approved setting up of 2 lakh new Primary Agricultural  Credit Societies (PACS) and dairy-fishery cooperatives in uncovered villages and panchayats over the next five years to strengthen cooperative movement in the country.

Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)

• At present, there are around 63,000 functional PACS out of 98,995 PACS across the country. 

• There are still 1.6 lakh panchayats without PACS and nearly 2 lakh panchayats without any dairy cooperative society.

• PACS constitute the lowest tier of the three-tier Short Term Cooperative Credit (STCC) structure in the country comprising about 13 crore farmers as its members, which is crucial for the development of the rural economy.

• These provide short-term and medium-term credit and other input services, like seed, fertilizer, pesticide distribution, etc. to member farmers. These are refinanced by NABARD through 352 District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and 34 State Cooperative Banks (StCBs).

• The other two tiers are State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs).

• PACS account for 41 per cent (3.01 crore farmers) of the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) loans given by all entities in the country and 95 per cent of these KCC loans (2.95 crore farmers) through PACS are to the small and marginal farmers.

• 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. 

Establishment of new PACS, cooperative societies

• 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.

• The Union 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.

• Initially, two 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 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:

i) National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD), and Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) under the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying.

ii) 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 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.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store