GS paper III

News Excerpt

The government announced a plan to set up the “world’s largest grain storage plan” in the cooperative sector.

More details on the news:

• A pilot project has been inaugurated in 11 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in 11 states under the largest grain storage plan.
• The government plans to set up a storage infrastructure of 700 lakh metric tons over the next five years at a cost of Rs 1.25 lakh crore. 
• This will enable farmers to store their produce and sell it at the right time according to their own needs. This will also help them to avail loans from banks.
• The government also laid the foundation stone for additional 500 PACS for construction of godowns and other agri infrastructure.
• A project for computerisation in 18,000 PACS across the country has been inaugurated, aligning farming with cutting edge technology and shifting to fully digital payments.
• The launch of multiple initiatives for the cooperative sector at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi is intended to address one of the key farmer concerns of storage.

Objective & Feature of the plan

• Create 100% storage capacity: The grain storage scheme aims to create storage capacity for storing 100% of India's grain production.
• Integrate PACS godowns with food grain supply chain: It aims to seamlessly integrate PACS godowns with the food grain supply chain, with a collaborative effort of NABARD and spearheaded by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).
• Convergence of various existing schemes: The initiative is being implemented through the convergence of various existing schemes like the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Agriculture Marketing Infrastructure (AMI), etc. to enable PACS participating in the project to avail subsidies and interest subvention benefits for undertaking infrastructure development.

Rejuvenating the cooperative sector 

• Empowering small and marginal farmers: The vision of Sahakar se Samriddhi (prosperity through cooperatives) is to rejuvenate the cooperative sector and empower small and marginal farmers.
• Target to increase FPO: Farmers today export their produce through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO). 8000 FPOs are already functional. The government’s target is to set up 10,000 FPOs. 
• Tax Reforms: The government had reduced minimum alternate tax on cooperative societies – bringing it at par with the corporate sector – and raised the slab for tax to be deducted at source to income above Rs 3 crore.
• Establishment of the Ministry: The creation of a full-fledged Ministry of Cooperation and routing of non-basmati rice and sugar exports on government account through the newly-registered National Cooperative Exports Ltd points to the importance the government is placing on cooperatives.

Storage under Food Corporation of India

• The government seems to be increasingly emphasizing the role of cooperatives in agricultural marketing and storage, as opposed to government-owned entities such as Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Central Warehousing Corporation.
• According to the latest available data, the total storage capacity with the Food Corporation of India alone is 361.62 lakh tonnes as of February 1, 2024. Of this, 146.86 lakh tonnes is owned by FCI and the balance 214.76 lakh tonnes is hired.
• The storage capacity with state government agencies is another 400.74 lakh tonnes. Together, it adds up to 762.36 lakh tonnes.
• The new storage plan aims to add another 700 lakh tonnes capacity over the next five years through cooperatives, in effect, double the existing capacity.

Conclusion

The launch of the "world's largest agri storage plan" with a Rs 1.25 lakh crore outlay over five years is a significant step toward empowering farmers, ensuring better storage infrastructure, and promoting cooperative growth in agriculture, fostering self-reliance and prosperity.