The cooperative sector will continue to play a major role in the development of

agriculture and allied sectors in the state. The cooperative institutions have been

traditionally supplying inputs like seeds and fertilizers and have played a major role in

making credit available to the farmers in the state through the network of Primary

Agricultural Credit societies (PACS) and Central Cooperative Banks (CCBs). However,

due to weakening of the cooperative institutions due to their poor financial condition

and lack of professional management, the flow of credit as well as supply of inputs to

the agricultural sector got considerably reduced in the recent years. This, however,

should not lead us to conclude that the role of cooperative sector has lost its

relevance in the present context.

Agricultural Credit :

The cooperative sector still plays a major role in supply of short term credit to

the agricultural sector. In order to achieve the 11th Plan target, all out efforts were made to strengthen the Short Term Cooperative Credit Structure (STCCS) which includes PACS, CCBs and State

Cooperative Bank. Action has already been initiated

in this direction by way of implementation of the Revival Package for STCCS.

However, the commercial banks and RRBs will continue to play a major role specially

for meeting the need of long term credit to the agricultural sector.

Agriculture Inputs :

The cooperative societies have been traditionally supplying inputs to their

members. However, the poor financial condition of Bihar State Cooperative Marketing

Union (BISCOMAUN) has adversely affected the input supply business of PACS and

Vyapar Mandal Sahyog Samitis (VMSS). At the beginning of the plan period, only about

300 out of 6000 PACS were doing fertilizer business. However, with proper

coordination at the district level and the state level, this number has increased to

about 1800 by now and these societies have already conducted business worth about

Rs. 100 crores during the current financial year. It has been felt that the distribution

of fertilizers through the cooperative societies results in better distribution and

availability. It is possible to increase the number of such societies to about 2500 by

the end of next financial year. With revival of BISCOMAUN and allocation of larger

quantity of fertilizer for cooperative sector, this number can be further increased to

over 4000 by the end of plan period.

The non-availability of quality seeds has led to decline in supply of seeds by the

cooperative societies to farmers. With the revival of Bihar Rajya Beej Nigam, a major

thrust can be given to supply of quality seeds through these societies.

Crop Insurance :

As the agriculture in the state is largely dependent on nature, the need for an

efficient crop insurance scheme cannot be overemphasized. The state govt. is already

implementing the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) since the year 2000.

The insurance under the scheme is mandatory for loanee farmers whereas it is

optional for the non-loanee farmers. The coverage under this scheme has been

increasing over the years and compensation worth over Rs. 500 crores has been paid

under this scheme during last five years. It is expected that coverage under the

scheme for loanee farmers will increase with increase in flow of agricultural credit as

per the target set for the plan period. However, there is vast potential for increasing

the coverage of non-loanee farmers under the scheme by suitable extension

activities. Towards that end, a scheme has been recently approved, which allows

certain categories of PACS, who collect deposits from their members, to collect

insurance premium from non-loanee farmers through their accounts maintained in the

PACS. The PACS having member deposits above certain benchmark are also paid

service charges by the concerned CCB as an incentive. This will lead to easy

availability of crop insurance product at the village level and thereby increased

coverage of non-loanees. Experience has shown that the condition regarding opening

of bank account for payment of premium is a major impediment in their coverage

under the scheme.

Marketing and Storage :

The cooperatives can play a measure role in marketing and storage of

agriculture produce. This sector has a large network of 100 MT godowns in about 1900

PACS (panchayat level) and 200-250 MT godowns at block (VMSS) level apart from

large storage infrastructure of BISCOMAUN across the state. It is expected that

another 1100 PACS will have 100 MT godowns by the end of the plan period. These can

be utilized for storage of agriculture produce of farmers as well as for marketing of

such produce by the societies. The experience of procurement of paddy through

cooperative societies in recent years has shown that this sector can help to ensure

remunerative prices for farmers. Suitable policy initiatives and incentives can give a

major boost to the procurement of paddy as well as other agriculture produce. The

policy of allowing societies to supply paddy to the FCI during the current procurement

season has led to improvement in the quality of procurement. There is also the need

to provide soft loan to the cooperative societies to substantially increase procurement

through such societies. A scheme is under formulation for the purpose.

Agriculture Extension :

This is the area where the cooperative sector can play the most crucial role as

the experience of agriculture extension directly through government machinery has

not been very satisfactory. The cooperative societies can be directly involved in

running agri-clinics, plant protection units and transfer of technology in a big way as they are the real stake holders. Thus, the cooperative sector while holding enormous latent potential to stirrup the rural economy has to be guided in accordance with the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan committee.

FINANCIAL YEAR       PROPOSED CAPACITY IN MT          ESTIMATED COST IN lakh RS.

2008 – 09                                     112500                                                  6075.00

2009 – 10                                  202500                                                  11810.00

2010 – 11                                  147500                                                     9292.00

2011 – 12                                   205000                                                   13948.00

Total                                       667500.00                                                    41125.00

RBI signs MoU with Bihar on urban cooperative banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bihar Government have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on urban cooperative banks (UCBs) in the state.Consequent to the agreement,  a State level Task Force on Urban Co-operative Banks (TAFCUB) has been constituted for Bihar.

Mr K K Vohra, Regional Director for Bihar and Jharkhand, RBI, is the Chairman of the TAFCUB and Mr Narsingh Upadhyay, Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Government of Bihar is its co-Chairman. The other members of the TAFCUB include a representative each from the National Federation for Urban Co-operative Banks (NAFCUB), State Urban Banks Federation, a nominee of the Bihar Government and a representative from Urban Banks Department, RBI.

It said similar MoUs had earlier been signed with the Governments of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Chattisgarh, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Puduchery, Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal, Tripura, Punjab, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir as also the Central Government. All the UCBs in the country are now covered under MoU.

As part of its developmental role, the RBI would also be assessing the training and computerization needs of the UCBs in Bihar with the objective of upgrading their human resources skills and technological infrastructure so that they improve their operational efficiency and quality of management information systems.

The RBI had, in its Mid-Term Review of Annual Policy announced in October 2004, announced that a vision document for UCBs would be prepared.

Accordingly, the central bank placed in the public domain a draft vision document in March 2005.As the Urban Co-operative Banks are subject to dual control by the Reserve Bank and the State Governments, the vision document envisaged the signing of MoU between State Governments and the Reserve Bank of India to put in place an arrangement through which there is convergence on the approach and remedial actions required to be taken for facilitating the development of the sector.

The vision document also proposed the constitution of a State Level Task Force of Urban Co-operative Banks with representatives of State Government, State/National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks and the Reserve Bank of India as its members, for the purpose of identifying the potentially viable urban co-operative banks and drawing up a time-bound action plan for their revival by setting specific monitorable milestones.

New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC)  decided to make efforts to augment storage capacity in the cooperative sector and promote the development of cold storage infrastructure throughout the country in the coming year.

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who presided over the NCDC’s general council meeting, had asked it to launch a special and concerted effort to attain this objective. Besides, NCDC’s board meeting held on March 17 also laid special emphasis on development of cold storage facility throughout the country.

The decision was taken in the wake of increased loss of food grain and vegetables in the godowns across the country.

“The benefits of storage facility in the cooperative sector are well known, in terms of improving the rural economy and strengthening livelihoods, while reducing wastage and enhancing food availability,” Pawar said, while assuring the government’s full support in the endeavour.

Supporting the vast cooperative network at the national level, the NCDC is engaged in the promotion and development of cooperative in agriculture and rural oriented activities.

Ludhiana: In a workshop organized by the Punjab Agricultural University  in Ludhiana stress was laid on making the cooperative movement in the state effective in agriculture sector.

The cooperative sector in India is the largest in the world and it plays a pivotal role in employment generation, poverty alleviation and food security. According to an estimate there are more than 500,000 co-operative societies working to bring about a change in the country.

Through the workshop themed ‘Relevance of Cooperative Movement in Agriculture’, the Punjab Agricultural University aimed to help farmers adopt new technologies that they generated.

According to the officials, the role of cooperative sector is extremely important in agriculture sector, as it supplies agricultural credit and funds and has the potential to deliver goods and services in vital areas where state and private sectors have not been able to do very much. In Punjab, cooperatives are playing a critical role in creating mass awareness too.

“Punjab is an agricultural state and our main focus during these days is to reduce the cost of production and enhance the per unit productivity level. It is only possible if we create the awareness among the masses that how we can reduce the cost of cultivation. Our second thrust area is to rationalize the use of resources available with us,” said M.S. Gill, Director of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University.

At all the forums, we always cry that water table is declining, soil health is degraded, so with the cooperative department till date their main focus was to arrange the supply of the inputs which are considered very crucial for the agriculture sector,” Gill added. The cooperative movement in Punjab is on strong footing with 60,000 societies that have a total turn over of around four billion dollars.Small and marginal farmers are able to take up new technologies and even go in for alternative farming, as credit is easily available at Cooperative Banks. In Punjab, many educated unemployed youth too have benefited from self-employment schemes run by the cooperative societies. “There is tremendous scope for employment. We need passion to improve the conditions in farming. About 300,000 farmers in Punjab have per capita five acres of land and they need our help. So there is no doubt that a number of people can get employment,” said Dr. Maninderjeet Singh, Chief Medical Officer. Balmukand Sharma, Chief Manager of Markfed in Punjab, said: “Cooperatives are one of the biggest employers at the world level. Around 10 million people are already employed by it. So keeping that in mind we think there is a huge scope for the students of B. Sc. (Agriculture) and MBA in Agri Business Management in private and government sector,”

“They can get employment in cooperatives like Markfed, Milkfed, housing federation, cooperative banks and development banks because after the retirement of the old staff, new recruitments will take place, so it offers good employment opportunities,” he added. Dairy farming is one of the main thrust areas of economic development in Punjab, and cooperatives like Milkfed and the Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited have achieved impressive results posting massive gains since their inception in 1973. In fact, provisions have been so made that small and landless rural families are able to supply their milk with convenience to the urban consumers with the help of cooperative Unions. Agriculture continues to be an extremely important sector of India’s economy and the cooperative movement has a crucial role to play in bringing about its transformation.

courtsy (ANI)

Dr. Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, Ex. Member of Parliament is the New President of National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), the Apex organization of Indian Cooperative Movement. At a governing council meeting of the NCUI held on 18th March, 2010 evening

Dr. Yadav was elected as President of NCUI. Dr. Yadav is presently the Chairman of KRIBHCO, the leading fertilizer cooperative in India and also the Vice-Chairman of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED). Born in 19th March, 1959 and was a son of Shri Thakur Prasad Yadav a freedom fighter. Dr. Yadav is a agriculturist by profession. Dr. Yadav was also the Ex. Member of Parliament elected to 14th Lok Sabha of Jhansi (UP) Constituency. He was also member of the parliamentary committee on estimates, energy and local area development scheme for MPs. Dr. Yadav had a long association with the cooperative movement both at a state level in Uttar Pradesh as well as national level for around  22 years. He has been on the board of National, state and district level cooperatives. He has actively participated for the promotion and development of agriculture & marketing cooperatives in the country. His special area of interest lies in the field of dissemination of knowledge on new technology in agriculture, dairying and gardening. He has a long association with various educational and social institution in the country. He has widely traveled abroad for strengthening the cause of Indian Cooperative Movement.

New Delhi

The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) today launched its “Farm Gate to Home Gate” campaign aimed at procuring agricultural products directly from farmers and selling them to consumers at affordable prices.

The campaign, expected to provide relief to consumers from the high prices of food products, was inaugurated by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

Ms Dikshit said her government would work with NAFED to keep prices down and warned hoarders against unjustified increases in prices. She said NAFED and other government agencies had succeeded in providing a network that offered essential items at reasonable rates. This included outlets of NAFED, Mother Dairy and the Delhi Government’s own departments, she said.

“We expect prices to fall further in the next 10-15 days,” she said, pointing out that government inspectors and officials would keep a close watch to prevent hoarding. She recalled how wholesalers and retailers began coming forward with offers to reduce prices the day NAFED and Delhi government began talks.

NAFED plans to extend the campaign to other regions soon, beginning with Chennai on February 15 and Kerala on the following day. It will cover Mumbai and Kolkata in the next few weeks.

“We have decided to help the common man with the assistance of the state governments whenever there is a spiraling of prices,” Mr K V Thomas, Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, said.

“The Farm Gate to Home Gate initiative is in keeping with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s advice to go directly to the farmers. The farmers will get reasonable prices for their produce and the consumers will be able to buy them at affordable rates,” NAFED Managing Director C V Ananda Bose added.