Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched several significant initiatives in the Cooperative Sector during an event at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi on Saturday. Among these, he inaugurated the pilot project for the ‘World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector,’ implemented in 11 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) across 11 states. Union Minister for Cooperation and Home, Amit Shah, expressed gratitude for the Prime Minister’s investment of Rs 2,500 crores to strengthen PACS, stating, “To strengthen PACS, PM Modi ji has invested Rs 2,500 crores. I thank Modi ji for this. Today 18 thousand PACS are being launched. Along with this, the world’s largest grain storage scheme is also being started.”
As part of this initiative, PM Modi laid the foundation stone for an additional 500 PACS nationwide, focusing on constructing godowns and other agricultural infrastructure. The goal is to integrate PACS godowns with the food grain supply chain, enhancing food security and promoting economic development. NABARD and the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) are collaborating on this effort. The project combines existing schemes like the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Agriculture Marketing Infrastructure (AMI), etc., allowing participating PACS to benefit from subsidies and interest subvention for infrastructure development.
Additionally, PM Modi inaugurated a computerization project for 18,000 PACS across the country, aligning with the government’s vision of ‘Sahakar se Samridhi’ to revive the cooperative sector and empower small and marginal farmers. This project, with a financial outlay of over Rs 2,500 crore, aims to transition all functional PACS to a unified Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) based national software. The integration of PACS with NABARD through State Cooperative Banks and District Central Cooperative Banks is designed to enhance operational efficiency and governance, benefiting millions of small and marginal farmers.
Union Minister Amit Shah praised PM Modi for transforming the Cooperative sector, addressing a longstanding demand for a separate ministry for cooperation. Shah emphasized that PM Modi fulfilled this dream by creating a dedicated Ministry for Cooperation. The event was attended by Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Arjun Munda.