Context:
Minister of Cooperation replied in the Lok Sabha about the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector.
About the initiative:
- Aim – To mitigate crop damages, alleviate distress sales by farmers, and strengthen the nation’s food security.
- Objective – Creation of infrastructure for Agriculture and Allied purposes, at selected ‘viable’ Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)
- Vision – To leverage the strength of the cooperatives and transform them into successful and vibrant business enterprises to realize the vision of “Sahakar-se-Samriddhi” (Cooperation for Prosperity).
- Implementation by Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) under Chairmanship of –
- Minister of Cooperation
- Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
- Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
- Minister of Food Processing Industries
- Schemes converged under the Plan:
- Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare –
- Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF)
- Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI)
- Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)
- Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM)
- Ministry of Food Processing Industries –
- Pradhan Mantri Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME)
- Pradhan MantriKisanSampadaYojana (PMKSY)
- Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution –
- Allocation of food grains under the National Food Security Act
- Procurement operations at Minimum Support Price
- Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare –
- Benefits –
- Functions as Procurement centres for State Agencies/ Food Corporation of India (FCI)
- Serves as Fair Price Shops (FPS)
- Reduction of Food Grain Wastage
About PACS:
- Registered cooperative societies that have been providing credit and other services to their members.
- Headed by – State Cooperative Banks (SCB) at State level
- Provides short-term and medium-term agricultural loans to the farmers
- There are more than 1,00,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in the country
Source: PIB
Previous Year Question
Consider the following statements:
- In terms of short-term credit delivery to the agriculture sector, District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) deliver more credit in comparison to Scheduled Commercial Banks and Regional Rural Banks.
- One of the most important functions of DCCBs is to provide funds to the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2020 Prelims]
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Practice Question
