Cooperative Movement in Odisha: A Profile

Cooperatives play a vital role in the

economy of Odisha. With more than 65%
dependency of the population on agriculture that
constitutes nearly 36 percent to the Net Domestic
Product of the state had remained the backbone of
the state’s economy. Cooperatives in Odisha
remains the pivot around which the whole
agricultural system clusters yet unfortunately it has
not been given its due importance and consequently
the farmers, the supposedly backbones of the
economy remained underprivileged and became an
easy prey of the exploitation in hands of the middlemen and traders operating in the agricultural
sector.

COOPERATIVES AND AGRICULTURE IN ODISHA:

Cooperatives and agriculture are supplementary to each other. The basic formation of Primary
Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) itself embodied by the farmers of agricultural
produce to provide them with the power of aggregation of their limited resources to have a
better bargaining power of the price of their produce and inputs used in agriculture. As per the
available estimates for the year 2017-18, 48.8 percent of total working population in the state
is associated with this sector including its ancillaries. However the average landholdings in
Odisha is smaller in size compared to the national average reiterates the importance of
cooperatives for the small and the marginal farmers of the state due to their restricted individual
bargaining power for fair value of their produces

The Progress and success of Cooperative movement in Odisha may be one of the effective
solutions to the people to increase their income and socio-economic status. Besides other
factors the importance of training to develop the knowledge, attitude and skill of the
functionaries and beneficiaries of all type of cooperatives is crucial to enrich their performance
and information base for the development their cooperatives and members.

The network of cooperatives in the state of Odisha (as on 2018-19) with special reference to
agricultural credit cooperatives can be viewed at a glance as follows:

Under the directorate of the Registrar of cooperative societies, there are 19 cooperative
divisions in the state of Odisha, one each at the headquarters of the 13 erstwhile undivided
Revenue Districts headed by a Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies and 58 cooperative
circles, each headed by an Assistant Registrar of cooperative Societies. 791 Group B staff,212
Group C staff , 385 Group D staff are presently working in various Department as such RCS,
Auditor General of Cooperative Society, Director Agriculture Marketing.
Besides, there are following 9(nine) Apex Cooperative societies functioning under the
administrative control of the Cooperation Department of Govt. of Odisha.

(I) Odisha State Cooperative Union (OSCU)

(II) Odisha State Cooperative Bank (OSCB)
(III) OdishaState Cooperative Marketing Federation
(MARKFED)
(IV) Odisha Cooperative Housing Corporation
(OCHC)
(V) Odisha Consumer Co-operative Federation
(OCCF)
(VI) Odisha State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural
Development Bank (OSCARD Bank)
(VII) Odisha Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks & Credit C.S Ltd.
(VIII) Odisha Cotton Growers' Cooperative Marketing Federation (COTFED)
(IX) Odisha Federation of Labour& Construction Cooperative Ltd

In total at present there are 4526 numbers of Cooperative Societies functioning under the
jurisdiction of Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Odisha.

 Odisha State cooperative bank is the apex bank functioning with its14 branches
 17 Central Cooperative Banks (CCBs) at Middle Tier, operating through 322
branches
 2708 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) including 214 Large
Sized Adivasi Multipurpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPCS) and 6 Farmers' Service
Cooperative Societies (FSCS)
 Cooperatives covers 55.21 lakhs agricultural families as members out of total
56.91 lakhs agricultural families (i.e. around 95%) in the state.
 11 Urban Cooperative Banks
 66 Regulated Market Committee (RMC)
 3 Cooperative Sugar Mills
 18 Cooperative Cold Storages
 Around 46.31 lakhs KCC issued through Coops as compared to 18.29 lakhs by
Coomercial banks and RRBs.
 The Short-Term Cooperative Credit Structure (STCC) has been playing a vital role
in dispensation of 65% of agricultural credit against National average of around 17%.
 45% of society members are borrowing members
 49% of society functioning in the state are earning profit
 The net profit ranges from 13 to 28 lakhs
 2637 PACS are obtained licensee for prepositioning fertilizer and 25% of the total
fertilizer off take in the State distributed through the cooperative structure in the state.
 2206 PACS have obtained license from Agriculture Department and
prepositioning seed, sale and the subsidy and sold certified seeds of 1,16,336 quintal
during 2018-19.
 23, 58,234 farmers have been registered by the PACS for seed DBT as on
31.10.2018.
 182 nos of Agro Service Centres are established at the PACS level under
NABARD scheme, through which PACS will enable for custom hiring of farm
machinery and equipment to small & marginal farmers at cheaper rate.
 With a view ensuring payment of Minimum Support Price (MSP) to the farmers
for paddy during paddy procurement season for KMS 2018-19 (Kharif 2018). 2707
PACS, out of 2582 PACS out of 2708 (i.e around 95%) through their 3154 Paddy
procurement centre participated in paddy procurement activities as Commission Agent
of the Odisha State Civil Supply Corporation. In total 51.47 lakh MT of paddy from
893765 farmers were procured by PACS and Markfed.
 There are 3130 Godowns having storage capacity of 2, 54,965 MT at PACS level
till 2018-19. These Godowns are having storage capacity of 50MT / 100 MT each.
 There are 597 Godowns having total capacity of 1, 76,645 MT operated by 62
RMCs in the state. Besides, construction of 23 new Godowns with additional capacity
of 19,000 MT is under progress.
 As on 30.06.2019, 165368 Ru-Pay KCC have been activated by linking them to
their savings Bank Account available at DCCBs, for easy access of their sanctioned
credit during Khariff& Rabi season through the ATM of all other bank, micro ATM,
through National Payment Corporation of India network.
 Establishment of 373 Common Service Centres at PACS Level: Supports National
e-Governance Programme renders not only services to the people at remote places but
also generate income.
 All the PACS in the state of Odisha have been connected with computer facility.

 On-line Registration of farmers has been made mandatory from KMS( khariff
) 2014-15 onwards
 Paddy Procurement Automation System (P-PAS) is being implemented at all PACS
level.
COOPERATIVE TRAINING (DEPARTMENT AL AND INSTITUTIONAL)

Madhusudan Institute of Co-

operative Management
(MICM), Bhubaneswar is one
of the 19 Cooperative
Training Institutes
functioning under the aegis of
National Council for
Cooperative Training
(NCCT), New Delhi which is
an Autonomous Society
Promoted by Ministry of
Agriculture and Farmers’
Welfare, Govt. of India. Madhusudan Institute of Co-operative Management (MICM),
Bhubaneswar have been catering the training needs for the employees /
beneficiaries/functionaries of the Cooperation Department/ Allied Departments and
Cooperative Institutions in the state of Odisha since 1956.

The Odisha State Cooperative Union Ltd. (OSCU) having 4 nos. of Centre of Cooperative
Management (CCMs) at Bargarh, Baripada, Koraput, Gopalpur-on-sea and 18 District
Cooperative Unions is primarily focusing on the members’ education as well training of PACS
functionaries.

Besides, Agriculture Cooperative Staff Training Institute (ACSTI) Bhubaneswar of Odisha

State Cooperative Bank (OSCB) is also imparting training especially to functionaries of
DCCBs and in certain cases functionaries of PACS.

Madhusudan Institute of Cooperative Management, Bhubaneswar, Odisha conducts Capacity

Building Programmes for the BODs and employees of Cooperatives. Need based training
programme for Functionaries/ empl oyees of Cooperation Department/Allied Departments /
Cooperative institutions (All types). It also conducts Awareness Programmes for the Farmers
/ FPOs/ Farmer members of Cooperatives in collaboration with NABARD, SEBI, WDRA etc.
Besides this institute provides a flagship programme of 6 months (26th weeks) duration namely
Higher Diploma in Cooperative Management for the employees of Cooperation Department/
Allied Departments/ Cooperative Institutions. This institute also offer a full time 2 years MBA
programme accredited by AICTE and affiliated to Biju Pattanaik University of Technology,
Odisha for the students selected through OJEE.

In a nutshell, the training opportunities for the cooperative personnel are grossly inadequate in
the state. Looking to the involvement of the majority of the numbers of the farmers engaged in
the state comes from the cooperative fold, the state government should immediately focus to
revamp the existing cooperative infrastructure in the state and utilise the same for augmentation
of agriculture in the state. As per estimate the total trainable in the sector is a whopping 95,000
to 105,000 personnel of which hardly a total of 10,000 could be trained per year. A defined
training policy of the state government in this regard is highly desirable to take the agriculture
and cooperatives in the state.

Registrar of cooperative
Societies being the head of
the Directorate of
Cooperatives in the state
may form a core committee
for training of Cooperative
personnel with its allied
departmental heads to
strategies the roadmap of
the training policy.
Adequate funds may be
allotted by each department
Fortnight newspapaer in different cooperative sector to develop the human
resources. New areas of
training for the diversified business opportunities may be identified in discussion with all the
heads of the various training institutes for designing standardised training modules for common
implementation for the purpose of training.

Cooperatives need urgent structural reformation towards technology orientation and also utilise
then same for the related diversified business areas of agricultural value addition, processing,
scientific warehousing etc. Armed with the internet facility and computer PACs can act as a
“one stop shop” as coined by the state govt. for the farmers in all aspect of their crop cycle
from seed to sale of their produce. However, all these modern business ventures calls for a very
high degree of technological acumen, adequate training can only act as a panacea for the
ensuring days. As cooperatives already made an existence in the economy since the year 1904,
a little boost in form of policy support will definitely usher a new era for the modern day
cooperatives in the country.