The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the constitution of an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) for forming the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in the Cooperative Sector by integrating various schemes of different ministries on Wednesday.
There would be three ministries which would work under the Chairmanship of Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah. Ministries to be engaged in the IMC are the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
The Cabinet also decided to achieve this goal in a time bound manner—the National Level Coordination Committee will be formed within one week of the Cabinet approval, the implementation guidelines will be issued within 15 days, a portal for the linkage of PACS with Govt. of India and State Governments will be rolled out within 45 days and the implementation of the proposal will start within 45 days of the Cabinet approval.
The Ministry of Cooperation will implement a pilot project in at least 10 selected Districts of different States and UTs in the country. The Pilot would provide valuable insights into the various regional requirements of the project, the learnings from which will be suitably incorporated for the country-wide implementation of the Plan.
The Prime Minister has observed that all out efforts should be made to leverage the strength of cooperatives and transform them into successful and vibrant business enterprises to realize the vision of “Sahakar-se-Samriddhi”.
To take this vision forward, the Ministry of Cooperation has brought out the ‘World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in the Cooperative Sector’. The plan entails setting up various types of agri-infrastructure, including warehouses, custom hiring centers, processing units, etc. at the level of PACS, thus transforming them into multipurpose societies.
There are more than 1,00,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in the country with a huge member base of more than 13 crore farmers. In view of the important role played by PACS at the grassroots level in transforming the agricultural and rural landscape of the Indian economy and to leverage their deep reach up to the last mile.
The Plan would be implemented by utilizing the available outlays provided under the identified schemes of the respective Ministries such as Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) in the Ministry of Cooperation.
Under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, schemes such as the PM Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME), the PM Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) would be utilized. In the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, schemes like Allocation of food grains under the National Food Security Act and Procurement operations at Minimum Support Price would be integrated.
The creation of decentralized storage capacity at the local level would reduce food grain wastage and strengthen 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 the ‘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.