YOJANA SUMMARY

COOPERATION TO
PROSPERITY

July 2023
 COOPERATIVES BASICS: FAQS
What is Cooperation?
• The concept of Cooperation envisages a group of persons having one or more common economic needs, who
voluntarily agree to pool their resources-both human and material, and use them for mutual benefit through
an enterprise managed by them on democratic lines.
• Cooperation is a form of economic organisation based on certain values of life. It is a voluntary democratic
association of human beings, based on equality of control, opportunity and equity of distribution.
• Further, it stands for the promotion of the common interests of producers and consumers.
• Cooperation renders services to its members without the sole intention of making profits.
What Are The Constitutional Provisions for a Cooperative Society?
• Article 19(1)(c) of the Constitution states that All citizens shall have the right to form associations or unions or
co-operative societies.
• Directive Principles of State Policy 43B deals with the Promotion of cooperative societies.
o The State shall endeavour to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic
control and professional management of cooperative societies.
• Part IXB of the Constitution grants constitutional status to cooperative societies and contains provisions for
their democratic functioning.
What is National Cooperative Database?
• The primary goal and purpose of building National Cooperative Database is to have Information based Decision
Support System.

SAHAKAR SE SAMRIDDHI: FROM PLANNING TO REALISATION

• PM Modi carved out a separate administrative Ministry - Ministry of Cooperation (MoC) on 6 July 2021.
• The PM's clarion call - Sahakar se Samriddhi offers a clear message of cooperation as a tool to achieve
economic freedom, self-reliance and social justice, through community-led and community-owned
entrepreneurial exertions.
o Cooperatives are community-level business organisations with incredible capacity to generate and
absorb social capital.
Cooperatives: Historical Background
Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patelji sowed the
• From the promulgation of the Cooperative Credit Societies Act seeds of Anand Milk Union Limited
in 1904 to its amendment in 1912, the cooperative movement (Amul) through Tribhuvandas Patel by
was largely concentrated on rural credit mobilisation and forming farmer cooperatives for the
disbursements to farmers. production and marketing of milk through
• Following recommendations by the Maclagan Committee on collectivised efforts.
Cooperation in India (1914-15), the movement transitioned
from being primarily focused on providing relief to becoming a movement that aimed to improve socio-
economic welfare.
• Currently, India is home to 8.54 lakh cooperatives of which 80% are non-credit cooperatives, and 20% are
credit Cooperatives.

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• Today, cooperatives have a presence in 98% of villages, with 29 crore members.
Honouring Cooperative Principles: Seven Golden Principles Of Cooperation

Commitment To Cooperative Movement: Steps Taken

• Govt. has decided to plan, prioritise and explore new emerging areas for our cooperatives and strive
collectively by being members of a cooperative 'SQUAD':
o 'S' - 'Self-reliance (Atmanirbhar); 'Q' - 'Quality Performance', 'U' - 'Unshakable Cooperative Movement,
'A' and 'D' for 'Accountability in Governance' and 'Development through Modern Technology,
respectively.
• Cooperation Policy is being finalised by a committee [Chairman: Suresh Prabhu].
• Important Policy parameters for attaining Sahakar Se Samriddhi: 4Ps + 4Es
o 4Ps – People Cooperating with People; Production by People; People before profit; Profit with a purpose
o 4Es – Ease of Doing Business; Ease of Living; Ease of credit access; Ease of Cooperation
• During July 2021 and May 2023, the Ministry successfully got approvals on eight important policy matters:
o Cooperative Societies as registered buyers and sellers on GeM platform
o Computerisation of 63,000 functional PACs
o Introduce Amendment to the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Bill, to comply with the 97th Constitutional
Amendment Provisions
o Establishing National Organics Cooperative Society to promote organic products
o Setting up of National Seed Cooperative Society, promoting production, preservation, certification and
distribution of quality seeds through cooperatives
o Setting up of National Export Cooperative Society, promoting exports from cooperatives

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 o Creating two lakh new multi-purpose PACS or Dairy/Fisheries Cooperative Societies to cover all 2,54,000
Panchayats
o World’s largest community foodgrain storage movement through PACs
• Model bye-laws: making PACS vibrant
o Model bye-laws for PACS have been drawn and circulated to the States/UTS for appropriate adoption.
o So far, 22 States/UTS have adopted the model bye-laws.
• PACS as common service centers (CSCs)
o It has been decided to register and digitise PACS/Large Area Multi-Purpose Societies (LAMPS) to provide
more than 300 e-services to common citizens
• Integrating PACS with FPO
o Cooperatives are ready to promote Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs).
o The Government of India has decided to allot an additional 1,100 FPOs to NCDC under the existing FPOS
Scheme of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
o Integration of the FPOS Scheme in cooperatives would help PACS extend their scope of activities in
agriculture production, input management, agri-equipment, processing, packaging, storage and
transportation, etc.
o The integration also enables PACS to take up high income enterprises like beekeeping, mushroom
cultivation, etc.
• Involving PACS in oil & energy business
o The PACS are now eligible to avail licenses for Petrol/ Diesel dealerships and LPG distributorships.
o PACS are all-set to get engaged in energy security efforts too. They will be active partners in implementing
various renewable energy schemes of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
o The existing PM- KUSUM Scheme of MNRE will enable the farmer members of PAC to ensure energy
security and guarantee incremental income through the installation of photovoltaic modules on the
periphery of their farmland.
• Developing national database
o MoC is developing a comprehensive cooperative database to capture systemic and organised information
to catalogue sector-specific, diverse cooperatives.
• Consolidating cooperative credit
o There are about 13 crore farmers linked directly to the cooperatives through PACS.
o The Government is committed to preserving the existing three-tier structure of the cooperative credit
system, as any dilution in the structure could weaken the credit mobilisation, distribution, financing, and
refinancing system of Cooperatives.
o To strengthen the Long-Term cooperative credit structure, MoC is working on a project for the
computerisation of Agricultural and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs).
o Planned and adequate computerisation will remove issues, inadequacies, and inefficiencies in their
operation and profitability.
• Improving cooperative education & training

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 o Greater emphasis is given on imparting education and training to the primary members to make them
aware of the new initiatives taken by the Union Government.
o The govt has expressed its commitment to creating a national cooperative university with pan-India
functionalities.
o Through the establishment of a university, a comprehensive, integrated and standardised structure for
cooperative teaching and training will be created.
Challenges
• Some of the vital issues that require immediate attention are - (a) reduction in regional and sectoral
imbalances in cooperative spread; (b) meeting regulatory complexities; (c) improving governance, leadership
and operational systems; (d) ensuring professional management; (e) initiating time-tested structural reform
measures, etc.
• Other critical dimensions are:
o establishing an effective dialogue and coordination mechanism between the central registrar and state
registrars of cooperatives;
o adhering to cooperative principles and democratic values, procedures of transparency, strengthening
basic infrastructure including equity structure and diversification;
o promoting entrepreneurship, branding, marketing, and adopting technology, training, exchange of
education, and training of members;
o formation and promotion of new cooperative societies; and promotion of social cooperatives.
Conclusion
• The contribution of cooperatives will have a multiplier effect on the PM's vision of a five trillion-dollar Indian
economy and enhancing the income of farmers.
• To accomplish this, we must actively empower and revitalise primary cooperatives at the community- level as
a priority.
• There is a need to identify and address various issues to ensure the smooth and sustainable progress of
cooperatives.
• The vision of Sahakar se Samriddhi will be realised in its true sense if our community business units suitably
harness the inherent potential of people's collective action and act in unison in line with the core philosophy
of the cooperative-based model of socio-economic progress.
Case Study: Profit Multiplier Through Business Diversification
• In Sittilingi - a tribal village of Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu, 500+ members joined hands to form
Sittilingi Organic Farmers Association (SOFA) as a cooperative society in 2004.
• The members have diversified into production and marketing of millet-based cookies, health-mixes, roasted
powders, papads, etc., which is sourced by 40 retail outlets, enabling an outlet turnover of a minimum of
Rs 50,000/month.
• SOFA has diversified into ancillary agri-business too, viz., organic fertilisers and are running plant nurseries
and bio-compost units with a collective turnover of Rs 25 lakh a year.

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 EMPOWERING AGRICULTURE CREDIT COOPERATIVES THROUGH DIGITISATION
Short Term Rural Cooperative Credit Structure
• The Short Term Rural Cooperative Credit Structure (STCCS) is a three- tier structure that comprises State
Cooperative Banks (StCBs) at the state level, District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) at the district level,
and Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) at the village level.
• The objective of this model is
o to provide timely, adequate, and affordable cooperative credit to the farmer members, and
o to realise social, economic, and political objectives ranging from self-help and grassroot level community
participation to production, distribution, and social control over resource allocation and mobilisation.
• The farmers are members or owners of PACS. PACS are linked to the nearest DCCBs, whereas DCCBs are
members of StCBs.
• These member-driven and community-based institutions are expected to function in a cohesive manner for
efficient doorstep delivery of financial services.
• These institutions fall under the regulatory purview of the
Importance of PACS
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and are supervised by the National
Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). Data indicates that PACS account for 41
Cooperative Credit: Issues and Challenges per cent (3.01 crore farmers) of the Kisan
Credit Card (KCC) loans given by all
• The gradual institutionalisation of rural credit witnessed the
entities in the country, and 95 per cent of
presence of several commercial banks and microfinance
KCC loans (2.95 crore farmers) through
institutions operating through cutting-edge technologies.
PACS go to the small and farmers.
• The rural banking space has become tremendously
competitive for cooperatives. The cooperative credit PACS also function as nodal centres at
institutions could not compete due to their inability to adopt panchayat level for the delivery of
technology enabled solutions. financial and non-financial services such
as Direct Benefit (DBT), Interest
• Some of the most common issues are office management
Subvention Scheme (ISS), Crop Insurance
systems, transparency, good governance and
professionalisation, product innovation speed, service Scheme (PMFBY), and inputs like
delivery, etc. fertilisers and seeds.

Technology Adoption & Cooperative Credit

• The digitisation aspect of cooperative banks can be
understood in terms of two aspects- Digitisation of STCCS and Technology adoption for customer interface,
service delivery, and decision-making.
• Digitisation of STCCS
o The StCBs and DCCBS fall under the regulatory purview of the RBI. These have been automated by the
Centralised Online Real-time Exchange (CORE) based Banking Solution [CBS].
o CBS not only strengthens the regulatory and supervisory mechanisms for cooperative banks but also
ensures anytime, anywhere banking for the member clients.
o While CBS has brought in modernisation and transparency to banking transactions, cooperative banks,
especially the DCCBs, are yet to have adequate office management systems.

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 o In many cooperative banks, internal business processes like loan disbursement, performance appraisal,
maintenance of office records, etc., are still handled manually, which dampens the efficiency of
cooperative banks.
o Technology enabled internal systems ensure proper administration, governance, and internal monitoring,
which will in turn aid in the statutory compliance of the RBI.
o Common technological platforms and software across STCCS are the need of the hour to bring uniformity
to the agricultural credit system across states.
o While DCCBS need to deal with the digitisation of business processes, most of the PACS are being
computerised. Computerisation is the first step towards digitisation.
o However, the rural infrastructure is still inadequate in terms of interrupted power supplies, internet
connectivity, and low levels of computer skills.
▪ The problem is further exacerbated by incomplete and inconsistent books and records in PACS.
o The Ministry of Cooperation, implemented a project on the 'Computerisation of PACS’.
▪ This initiative will witness computerisation of around 63,000 PACS over a period of 5 years and will
enhance service delivery among small and marginal farmers.
▪ It will enable PACS to digitise its services and link them with DCCBs and StCBs.
▪ This will ensure speedy disposal of loans, a lower transition cost, faster audit, and reduction in
imbalances in payments and accounting with StCBs and DCCBs.
• Technology adoption for customer interface, service delivery and decision-making
o India is one of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables globally. The sector needs infrastructure and
logistics facilitation and calls for high-end value-chain financing.
o Similarly, warehouse receipt financing is an emerging area whereby the entire ecosystem comprising the
buyer, seller, exchange, warehouse, and bank is integrated into a digital repository and lending system.
o Many cooperative credit institutions have not been able to implement mobile banking and internet
banking services.
o The cyber security risks and the rate of cyber fraud are comparatively high in cooperative banks due to
low investment system security.
o Although there are immense benefits to the technological adoption, the costs may not be within the reach
of rural cooperative credit institutions.
o It is therefore desirable to have shared tech resources through a collaborative approach and strategic
alliances.
o Another example is using drones to monitor fields, which can improve the efficiency and accuracy of agri-
insurance products.
o Many advanced technologies, like block chain, have the potential to address cyber security risks and bring
transparency to cooperative banking operations.
Conclusion
• The Ministry of Cooperation, has charted feasible pathways for providing policy support and guidance to
STCSS.

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• The pan-India PACS computerisation initiative has the potential to revolutionise cooperative banking.
Computerisation, followed by digitisation, will enhance the service delivery of financial and non-financial
products.
• The proximity of cooperative credit institutions to the farming community, along with their age- old banking
wisdom, gives them a huge advantage in the agri-credit space when compared to their commercial
counterparts.
• With the right technology and digitisation, cooperative credit institutions are well poised to serve the changing
needs of Indian agriculture.
• It is important to note that digitisation calls for a complete transformation of the agriculture credit system so
that cooperative credit activities are aligned with national priorities such as financial inclusion, sustainable
agriculture, and the enhancement of farm incomes.

USHERING DEVELOPMENT PATHWAYS FOR NON-CREDIT COOPERATIVES

Cooperative Societies: Statistics
• As many as 8.54 lakh cooperative societies with a membership of 29 crore people are estimated to be operating
in India.
• The evolution and growth of cooperatives in India vary across States. The difference across States arises due
to the diverse focus areas and approaches adopted by the respective State administrative machinery to give
an impetus to growth.
Cooperative Structure in India
• The Cooperatives Society Act, 1912; the Mutually Aided Cooperative Thrift Society Act; and the Multi-State
Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 form the legal framework of cooperatives in India.
• There are two types of cooperative structures in the country, i.e., State Cooperative Societies and Multi-State
Cooperative Societies.
• The Multi-State Cooperative Societies come under the Central Government and the State Cooperative
Societies under the State Governments.
Globalisation & Cooperative Societies
• It was largely believed that the advent of globalisation would impede the development of cooperatives.
However, the success of certain cooperatives like Amul, Horticultural Producers' Cooperative Marketing and
Processing Society (HOPCOMS), Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (KCMMF) have proved this
supposition wrong.
• The common thread running through these success stories is the existence of a multi-tier system that helps
establish a strong supply chain.
• The backbone of a successful cooperative is a well-functioning E2E (end-to-end) supply integration chain
involved right from procurement of raw materials, product specification, manufacturing, scheduling,
distribution, till delivery of products to consumers
• The success of these cooperatives could also be attributed to diversification of product mix, undertaking
technical upgradation of methods and inputs, focusing on marketing and expanding their presence, even
internationally, and professional management.

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The Way Forward
• Non-credit Cooperatives are heterogeneous in nature, and due to their sheer diversity and vast spread across
sectors and regions, a 'one-size-fits-all' approach may not be successful for all sectors.
o E.g., In January 2023, it was decided to set up and promote a national-level Cooperative society for
organic products.
o This is gaining in importance with rising levels of health and environmental consciousness.
• Steps must be taken to ensure convergence, awareness generation, training, mentoring, and technological
upgradation, and digitalisation.
o Convergence
▪ The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises allows cooperatives to register as MSMEs
through online registration on Udyam portal.
▪ As per Udyam data, the highest number of cooperatives are registered under NIC code 10, which
pertains to manufacture of food products.
▪ A number of schemes that have substantially benefited MSMEs en masse are the Cluster- based
programmes.
▪ MSMES also benefit in terms of creating marketing linkages through the domestic Procurement &
Marketing Scheme, and the International Cooperation Scheme.
▪ Authorities may consider Udyam certification as the basic document for cooperatives to avail
benefits of programmes instead of any other documentation.
o Awareness, Training & Mentoring
▪ The need of the hour is to make students aware that the cooperative sector can be a full-fledged
career option. For this purpose, training needs to be imparted to them.
▪ Awareness programmes about cooperatives are required across India for capacity- building.
o Technology & Digitalisation
▪ The handholding from the Government in this regard is available in many forms, ranging from direct
subsidies to various credit facilities that may be used for this pursuit.
Cooperatives in India
• Members of a cooperative - whether consumers, workers, or producers - are the owners of the business as
well as the users of the goods and services.
• Cooperatives are governed on a one- member, one-vote basis. Democratic governance by members is one
of the cooperative model's greatest strengths.
• The cooperative movement in India has always leveraged social and financial capital for inclusivity and
community development.
• In India, cooperatives account for 19% of our agricultural financing, 35% of fertiliser distribution, 30% of
fertiliser production, 40% of sugar production, 13% of wheat procurement, and 20% of paddy procurement.
• Cooperative entrepreneur is nothing but a social leader with a vision to craft robust strategies for managing
business affairs democratically, rather than purely for personal gain.

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 ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT THROUGH COOPERATIVES
• Cooperation' has remained the philosophy of India, and the cooperative movement is the backbone of the
rural economy.
• Cooperative societies, particularly, in agriculture, dairy, and fisheries sectors, provide rural population not just
with livelihood opportunities but also with financial safety net with a community-based approach
Socio-Economic Empowerment Effects of Cooperation
• Cooperatives have inherent advantages in tackling the problems of poverty alleviation, food security, and
employment generation.
• These have immense potential to deliver goods and services at the doorstep without any hassles, as they are
people-centred citizen organisations.
• In cooperative enterprises, people can reach economic objectives by joining forces and pooling their
resources, which an individual would be unable to achieve.
• Cooperative enterprises can facilitate and ensure market access, create economies of scale and scope, and
establish independent market positions.
Cooperatives, Agriculture and Food Society
• India's strong roots and strategic focus on the agricultural sector provide enough justification for the
Government to move out of the front line of production and food security management and hand it over to
the farmer cooperatives.
• The Government should recognise that cooperatives are the most appropriate institutions to contribute to and
address some of the identified priority areas of concern, like food security, employment, poverty reduction,
and financial inclusion.
Sahakar Grams - The Future
• Every village in the country should be encouraged to move towards Atmanirbhar Sahakar Grams.
• The concept of 'Sahakar Grams' is for shifting the gravitational forces of agriculture development and food
management to the villages and farmers.
• Rational and efficient management of land, water, and cattle resources would ensure that there is no wastage
and chemical inputs are used only when there is no alternative.
A Case for Creating National Cooperative Food Grid (NCFG)
• Creating NCFG
o The Government can explore moving towards setting up a National Cooperative Food Grid (NCFG).
o Every Indian village should have one agriculture cooperative to run and manage its entire economic
activities on cooperative principles.
▪ This will reduce production costs and improve productivity.
o Two or three such village-level cooperatives should jointly promote one Multi-Purpose Village
Cooperative Society (MPVCS) with storage, sorting, grading, packaging, and trading facilities for
perishables and non-perishables.
▪ The recent initiative of the Ministry of regarding the creation of 2 lakh additional multi-purpose
cooperatives at the community level would be a great step towards achieving self-reliance in India
by following a bottom-up approach.

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• Working of NCFG
o Every grain of food produced in the village should flow to NCFG through these cooperatives. This will
completely eliminate food loss and wastage.
o The entire produce of the member farmer should be collected by the village cooperative and taken to
MPVCS, which will immediately credit the value of the produce at Government-determined rates to the
member's account.
o If the entire country is organised around this concept, then we will have around 7 lakh village agriculture
cooperatives and around 3.5 lakh MPVCS.
o NCFG may be created by digitally connecting the entire network of village-level cooperatives and MPVCS.
• Benefits
o NCFG can help India save around Rs 3 trillion annually by lowering the cost of food production and
rationalising expenditure on food security programmes of the Government.
o NCFG will also generate enormous employment opportunities in rural areas and trigger a new wave of
rural development.
o NCFG may be complimented by setting up a dedicated 'National Rural and Farm Prosperity Fund (NRFPF)'
for providing financial support.
Conclusion
• Cooperatives are the most appropriate institutional form for harnessing these opportunities, and a true
cooperative value-based entrepreneurial initiative can never fail, whatever the overall economic and market
condition be.
• The route for 'Developed and Atmanirbhar Bharat' essentially passes through its people, villages, rivers,
agricultural land, natural resources, and deep and strong cooperative roots.

INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY FOR MAKING INDIAN COOPERATIVES FUTURE-READY

• The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) defines cooperative as an organisation that is formed, controlled,
and managed by its members. These members joined voluntarily.
• It is also an enterprise that strives to meet collective member aspirations through economic activities while
retaining a social and cultural ethos.
• Basically, the major distinction between collectives, such as cooperative forms of organisations and other
forms of business is:
o Persons who own and finance the cooperative are those who use it;
o Control of the cooperative is by those who use it; and,
o Benefits of cooperatives are distributed to their members based on their use and contributions.
Spread and Outreach of Cooperatives
• India has 8.5 lakh cooperative units, of which 20 per cent are credit cooperatives.
• The remaining 80 per cent are non-credit cooperatives involved in diverse activities, viz. Fishery, Dairy,
Producer, Processing, Consumer, Industrial, Marketing, etc.

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Case of a Typical Cooperative in Dairy Sector
• The cooperative in the dairy sector in India follows a three-tier structure.
• The first layer is the producer cooperative formed by dairy producer members.
o The producer members receive inputs from society. The society with the support of the union, studies the
input markets and the needs of the members with much caution and generate critical insights to ensure
sustained milk production through these producer members.
o The role of information and communication technology (ICT) is quite helpful in locating markets and
market prices for these input services.
o Producers receive input services like cattle, fodder, cattle feed, animal health care, insurance, and animal
husbandry services.
o In this layer, the producer operates as a customer for the cooperative, and the cooperative shields
members from market pressure, thereby playing an important role in influencing the cost of milk
production at the producer's place.
o Post-production by members, the cooperative looks after the milk pooling point for the producers. Today,
technology-enabled services are planned to provide this facility at the doorstep of the farmer while
ensuring transparent transactions.
o Automatic Milk Collection Units (AMCUs) are now based on matured technologies having capabilities to
support transparency in transactions and ensure quality control.
o Robotics and internet of things (IoT)-based milking machines are used today to reduce drudgery and
ensure timely information on the volume and quality of milk being milked at the producer's premises.
• The second layer is the cooperative union.
o The union takes over the milk stored by the cooperatives by establishing supply chain and logistics models
which are now ICT-enabled.
• The third layer of the dairy cooperative sector in India is the federation.
o The federation emerges as a larger umbrella to make the dairy cooperative unions future-ready through
continuous processes and market innovation.
o The federation aims to find ways and means to understand market behaviour, manage economies of scale
and scope, and compete in the market.
o This approach involves the acquisition of business intelligence (BI) for the federation.
Conclusion and Way Forward
• The Digital India Policy (DI) has supported channelling digital services through Common Service Centres (CSCs).
• The intervention of the Ministry of Cooperation in converging CSC services with those of PACS is a major step
forward.
• The national cooperative database is an emerging platform for effective use of ML, AI, BI, and digital twin
services to benefit cooperatives.
• The emergence of dashboards will also have the potential to support policy decisions. The GEM portal, e-
NAM, and related services, including funds for training and infrastructure, have the potential to converge with
the national cooperative database.

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 FISHERY COOPERATIVES A BLUE OCEAN FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Potential
• Fisheries is a sunrise sector in India. It has immense economic potential in India that has a coastline of over
8,000 km, an exclusive economic zone of over 2 million square km, and with extensive freshwater bodies
stretching the length and breadth of the nation.
• India is the 3rd largest fish-producing country in the world, contributing 7.93% towards global fish production,
and is the second largest among the aquaculture fish-producing countries globally.
• It contributes to around one per cent of the national GDP. It provides livelihoods to more than 2.8 crore fishers
and fish- farmers.
• The country has annual export earnings of over Rs 50,000 crore from the fisheries sector.
Steps Taken By The Govt.
• The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) was launched in the year 2019-20 by the Ministry of
Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
• A dedicated Rs 7,522 crore Fisheries & Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) was created in
the year 2018-19.
• The Government also initiated the Blue Revolution in 2014, boosting not only fish production but also
infrastructure development in the fisheries sector.
• The momentum for the fishery cooperative movement in the country picked up in 2021 with the establishment
of the Ministry of Cooperation.
Fishery Cooperative Movement in India
• The fishery cooperative movement in India began as early as 1913, when the first fishermen's society was
organised under the name of 'Karla Machhimar Cooperative Society' in Maharashtra.
• There are 27,391 primary fishery societies in India 39.57 lakh fishers as members.
Role of Fishery Cooperative Federation
• The National Federation of Fishers' Cooperatives Ltd. (FISHCOPFED) is the apex and national level cooperative
organisation for the development of the fishery cooperative movement in India.
• It has 104-member institutions all over the country, including the of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying,
Government of India, and the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).
National Database of Fisheries Cooperatives
• A decision has been taken to organise fishery cooperatives covering each panchayat of the country to reach
a figure of 2 lakh in the coming five years.
• The National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) and FISHCOPFED have been assigned to speed up the
work.
• The fisheries sector is quite diverse with sub-sectors like marine, inland, and brackish water, besides cold water
and ornamental fisheries.
• The database can help us identify the gaps in the sector, and efforts will be made to bridge the gaps.
• Mapping of water bodies and production units is needed to strengthen the functioning of the fisheries
cooperatives with optimal membership.

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Strengthening of National Federation
• FISHCOPFED has provided social security to poor fishermen through accidental insurance.
• There is a need to set up the Fisheries Cooperative Management Institute in the country.
• Kausalyaganga at Bhubaneswar is a recognised fisheries hub in the country where FISHCOPFED has a training
centre.
o It could be upgraded as a National Institute of Fisheries Cooperatives Management with regional networks
for skill development in the fisheries cooperative sector in a planned but phased manner.
Conclusion
• Around 4 million people are economically benefited through primary fishery cooperatives in India.
• The fishery cooperative sector can provide livelihood security, nutritional security, and social security to the
vulnerable groups in our society.
• There is a need to insure over ten million fishermen under the Group Accident Insurance Scheme (GAIS) within
the next 2 to 3 years.
• All four million fishery cooperative members should be provided with online awareness training about the
PMMSY scheme and Cooperative Principles.
• Computerisation of a primary fishery cooperative can accelerate the growth of the sector at microlevel too.

ONE PACS ONE DRONE: TRANSFORMING COOPERATIVE SECTOR THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) constitute the lowest tier of the 3-tier Short-Term Cooperative Credit
(STCC) in the country, comprising approximately 13 crore farmers as its members, which is vital for the
development of the rural economy.
PACS Becoming Multipurpose
• Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to enable PACS to function as Common Services
Centres (CSC).
o MoU was signed between the Ministry of Cooperation, the Ministry of Electronics and Information
Technology (MeitY), NABARD, and CSC e-Governance Service India Limited.
• With PACS becoming multipurpose, more than 300 services will be made available to the rural population,
especially to small villages situated in remote corners of the nation. more employment opportunities will be
created in rural areas.
• In this sequence, it can be strengthened by providing each PACS with a Drone under the initiative of 'One
PACS One Drone (OPOD).
• It will strengthen the economic condition of PACS and promote the entry of new entrepreneurs in this field.
Drone Policy
• A drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). It is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on
board.
• The Drone Rules 2021 were announced with a vision to make India a global drone hub by 2030.

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• In order to boost the manufacturing of drones in India, the Central Government approved Production-Linked
Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones and components worth Rs 120 crore and putting import bans, paving the
way for the domestic manufacturing sector.
• It is expected that the drone component industry will attract $500 billion of investment in the next few years.
• In a major step promote precision farming in using drone technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers
Welfare has issued guidelines to make drone technology affordable to the stakeholders of the Agriculture
Sector.
• The guidelines of the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation (SMAM) have been amended.
• This amendment envisages granting up to 100% of the cost of a drone or Rs 10 lakh, whichever is less, as a
grant for the purchase of drones by the Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institutes, ICAR Institutes, Krishi
Vigyan Kendras (KVK), and State Agriculture Universities for taking up large scale demonstrations of this
technology on the farmers' fields.
• The Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) would be eligible to receive a grant of up to 75% of the cost of the
agriculture for its demonstration to the farmers.
• In order to provide agricultural services through drone application, 40% of the basic cost of the drone and its
attachments, or Rs 4 lakh, whichever is less, would be available as financial assistance by existing Custom Hiring
Centres (CHC), which are set up by Cooperative Society of farmers, FPO, and rural entrepreneurs.
Why Drone in Agriculture Sector?
• The Indian agriculture sector is going through significant challenges such as low yield, soil erosion, a lack of
irrigation facilities, inefficient use of inputs, unscientific use of chemical fertilisers, imbalanced NPK ratio in
fertilisers, lack of post-harvest management structure, access to financial services, etc.
• Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies can play a major role in addressing these challenges. The Ministry of
Electronic and Information Technology (MeitY) report highlighted that digital tech- based agriculture can
unlock a further value of $65 billion by 2025.
• The impact of digital agriculture on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be even larger.
• Drones are one such technology that is gaining prominence in the agriculture sector. Land mapping,
agrochemical and liquid fertilisers spraying (such as nano-urea/nano DAP/ Sagarika etc.), seeding, crop yield
assessment, and drone-based analytics are the most prominent uses of the drone.
• Spraying of Agrochemicals & liquid fertilisers has the potential to be actively used as it saves the cost of inputs
by 25-90%, minimises skin exposure by 90%, and improves crop yield.
Farm Mechanisation: A Concern
• It has been noticed that farm mechanisation has increased. However, this is still low when compared to other
countries like China (more than 70%), Brazil (more than 75%), and the United States (more than 95%).
• The low levels of mechanisation (less than 50% in India) add to the inefficiencies during the harvest and post-
harvest stages, which is one of the reasons for the low productivity of crops.
• With the introduction of drones in the agriculture sector, it is possible to increase the productivity of crops
while minimising the input cost.
One PACS One Drone: Action Required & Benefits
• Drones can help transform Indian agriculture, boost agriculture GDP by 1-1.5% create at least 5 lakh new jobs,
and support the country in ushering in a new digital era of prosperity.

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• Rural entrepreneurs associated with PACS, who have passed class 10th or its equivalent from a recognised
board and have pilot licences from institutes specified by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) would
be eligible to fly the agricultural drone.

REGENERATIVE AGRI-SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

• Supply chains concern themselves with the flow of products and information amongst the members of the
supply chain organisations. This entails the procurement and transformation of materials into final finished
products, and the distribution of those products to end customers.
• The supply chain is the series of the flows of agricultural commodities from producer to consumer following
the sequence of logistics flows, transporters, stores, procurement, warehousing, inventory management, and
processing.
Agriculture Supply Chain Management: Associated Challenges
• Agriculture Supply Chain Management (ASCM) focusses on efficient planning, design, coordination,
organisation, storage, processing, and monitoring of the flow of agricultural commodities from farm to fork.
• However, these supply chains are often challenged by various factors such as climate change, market volatility,
market price rate, and supply chain disruptions.
• The transformation towards a climate- smart regenerative agriculture supply chain will suppress the social and
environmental pressures on agriculture.
Importance of Supply Chain Management
• Agricultural supply chains ensure food security and sustainable agricultural development by connecting
different stakeholders.
• Farmers are dependent on supply chain intermediaries for procuring, marketing, and distributing
commodities.
• Supply Chain Management requires the right allocation of resources to handle storage problems,
transportation problems, and inventory management.
Cooperatives in Agri-supply Chain
• Collectives like Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), Cluster- Based Business Organisations (CBBOs),
Cooperative Marketing Societies, etc., are responsible for diverse business activities like bulk purchase of agri-
inputs, providing agro-advisory services.
• These are also involved in facilitation of credit requirements, aggregation of produce for collective marketing,
and processing of agricultural commodities.
• Cooperatives provide a platform for information dissemination, marketing, transportation, and distribution of
agricultural commodities.
• Producer cooperatives have integrated supply chain activities through symbiotic operations.
• Cooperatives help in offering credit facilities and getting quality produce by supplying the right agri-inputs
(seed. fertiliser, agrochemicals, farm equipment, and biofertilisers).
Cooperative Marketing and Supply Chain
• The focus of agriculture cooperatives has transformed from production to quality produce in addition to
marketing and processing.

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• Cooperative Marketing Societies have been progressing towards better storage facilities, efficient management
of resources, timely payments to farmers, and minimisation of waste.
PACS Storage & Supply Chain Management
• PACS are expected to become multi- purpose and will be able to undertake multifarious activities, which, inter
alia, include fishery, dairy, construction of rural godowns, procurement of food grains, storage of agri-inputs
(seed, fertiliser), LPG/CNG/Petrol distribution.
• The storage of agriculture implements, and agri-inputs by PACS can help ensure availability of quality inputs
for farmers.
• PACS are functioning as common service centres by facilitating the delivery of services to villages.
• PACS have delivered the right agri-inputs to the farmers at the doorstep ensuring quality production, and
facilitated storages.
• Cooperatives in regenerative supply chains are taking care of the climate, social, and environmental justice by
going beyond profit maximisation.
• It focuses on reduce, reuse and recycle (3Rs) of the by-products generated in the supply chain and minimises
waste.
Conclusion
• The Ministry of Cooperation has recently notified setting up of three sector-specific national level cooperative
societies: seed, export, and organic societies.
• Setting up and promoting these cooperative societies will require an efficient supply chain management
system to be owned, operated, and managed by member cooperatives.

WORLD’S LARGEST GRAIN STORAGE PLAN

• An Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC) has been constituted and empowered for facilitation of the 'World's
Largest Grain Storage Plan' in Cooperative Sector.
• This will be done by convergence of various schemes of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare,
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
• The IMC will be constituted under the Chairmanship of Minister of Cooperation, with Minister of Agriculture
and Farmers Welfare, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Minister of Food Processing
Industries and Secretaries concerned as members.
• This IMC will modify guidelines/ implementation methodologies of the schemes of the respective Ministries
as and when need arises.
What’s The Plan?
• The Plan entails setting up various types of agri-infrastructure, including warehouse, custom hiring centre,
processing units, etc. at the level of PACS, thus transforming them into multipurpose societies.
• Creation and modernisation of infrastructure at the level of PACS will reduce food grain wastage by creating
sufficient storage capacity, strengthen food security of the country and enable farmers to realise better prices
for their crops.

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• This initiative has been undertaken to set up decentralised storage capacity at the level of PACS along with
other agri-infrastructure, which would not only strengthen the food security of the country, but would also
enable PACS to themselves into vibrant economic entities.
Benefits of the Plan
• The plan is multi-pronged-it aims to address not just the shortage of agricultural storage infrastructure in the
country by facilitating establishment of godowns at the level of PACS, but would also enable PACS to undertake
various other activities, viz
o Functioning as Procurement centres for State Agencies/ Food Corporation of India (FCI).
o Serving as Fair Price Shops (FPS).
o Setting up custom hiring centres,
o Setting up common processing units, including assaying, sorting, grading units for agricultural produce,
etc.
• Creation of decentralised storage capacity at the local level would reduce food grain wastage and
strengthening food security of the country.
• By providing various options to the farmers, it would prevent distress sale of crops, thus enabling the farmers
to realise better prices for their produce.
• It would hugely reduce the cost incurred in transportation of food grains to procurement centres and again
transporting the stocks back from warehouses to FPS.
• Through ‘Whole-of-Government' approach, the Plan would strengthen PACS by enabling them to diversify their
business activities, thus enhancing the incomes of the farmer members as well.

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