Against the target of 10,000 FPOs, 7,597 FPOs have been registered so far in 34 States and Union territories according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
Union Minister of Cooperation, Mr Amit Shah informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that the Government has allocated a target of 1,100 new Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) to National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). These will help form and promote FPOs in cooperative sector, through strengthening of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies (PACS), he said.
Against the target of 1,100 FPOs, selection and allocation of 645 blocks, for formation and promotion of FPOs, has been completed. Further, selection and allocation of remaining 455 blocks is under consideration, the minister said.
The Scheme has a total budget outlay of Rs.6,865.00 crore.
Against the target of 10,000 FPOs, 7,597 FPOs have been registered so far in 34 States and Union territories according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
Under the scheme, funds are released to Implementing Agencies by Central Nodal Agency, the Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC). So far, Rs.1,024.59 crore have been released to Implementing Agencies.
Computerisation of functional PACS
To increase the viability of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and diversify their business activities to make them vibrant economic entities, Model Byelaws for PACS have been prepared to enable PACS to diversify their business activities by undertaking more than 25 business activities, including dairy, fishery, floriculture, setting up godowns, procurement of foodgrains, fertilizers, seeds, LPG/CNG/Petrol/Diesel distributorship, short-term and long-term credit, custom hiring centers, common service centers, Fair Price Shops (FPS), community irrigation, Business Correspondent activities, etc.
Further, in order to strengthen PACS, project for Computerisation of 63,000 functional PACS with a total financial outlay of ₹2,516 Crore has also been approved by the Government. This entails bringing all the functional PACS onto an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) based common national software, linking them with NABARD through State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs).
The minister said that the government has also approved a proposal to set up new multi-purpose PACS or primary dairy/ fisheries cooperatives covering every Panchayat/ village in the next five years, with support of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and other National level Federations.
He said that the Ministry of Cooperation has taken various other initiatives which aim at providing cooperatives with requisite forward and backward linkages to market agri produce, obtain credit and other services at the Panchayat/ village level itself, generate multiple and stable revenue streams for them, thus making them self-reliant. A list of 54 initiatives taken by the Ministry of Cooperation for development of Cooperative Sector was provided to the Rajya Sabha.
