Role of Cooperatives Sectors in Farmers’ Welfare

Context

The Prime Minister of India inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of many key initiatives for the Cooperative Sector at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.

Key Highlights 

• Pilot project of ‘World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector’ in 11 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACSs) in 11 countries.
• 500 new Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACSs) across the country for setting up of godowns & other agricultural facilities.
• A program to digitize 18,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACSs) across the country.

About Cooperatives 

• They play an important role in agriculture, providing farmers with a platform to mobilize their resources and prevent the exploitation of lenders
  • They are business enterprises owned and controlled by the members that they serve. 
• They provide a self-sustaining institutional framework for the social and economic development of the community.
• They have the potential to transform ordinary programs of everyday life into large-scale infrastructure programs, and they are a proven way to change the face of the rural agricultural economy
• They help shape the strong economy and stimulate rural development.
• Decisions in cooperatives are balanced by seeking the needs and aspirations of members and their communities pursuit of profit. They range from lenders to producers, buyers, or sellers of commodities such as fertilizer, milk, sugar, and fish.
• The Union Ministry of Cooperation was formed in 2021 and the Ministry of Agriculture was primarily responsible for its function.

97th Constitution Amendment Act 2011

• It gave the right to form collective bargaining units as a fundamental right (Article 19).
• This included a new binding principle for the regulation of national policy on the promotion of cooperatives (Article 43-b).
• It added a new Part IX-B entitled “The Co-operative Societies” (Articles 243-ZH to 243-ZT) to the Constitution.

Role in farmers’ welfare

• Cooperatives empower farmers to mitigate risks in agriculture and related industries and act as a shield from exploitation.
• They have the potential to revitalize agriculture and make it more sustainable.
• The government has encouraged sectors to play an important role in the implementation of policies for the benefit of the people.
• Companies play an important role in reducing agricultural costs by balancing the use of fertilizers, improving water efficiency, setting up more warehouses to avoid distress sales, they will promote the national e-market (e-NAM), educate farmers, emphasize value addition and promote other related activities such as poultry, beekeeping, and fisheries.

Cooperative Societies and Government Initiatives

• Financial assistance: The government is ensuring that every farmer in the state gets about ₹50,000 a year in one form or another.
  • This means that under the government at the Centre, every farmer is guaranteed ₹50,000 in various forms.
• Establish and promote 10,000 Farmer Professional Organizations (FPOs): This is a centralized scheme aimed at enabling farmers to increase their bargaining power, implement economies of scale, reduce production on and to increase farmers’ income through the accumulation of their agricultural products, thus playing an important role towards sustainable income generation.
  • It has spent ₹10 lakh crore on fertilizer subsidies in the last nine years to ensure farmers get crop nutrients at reasonable prices even as global rates rise.

Conclusion

• Copperplate play an important role in the welfare of farmers. 
• Not only do they provide financial support, they also educate farmers on modern agricultural techniques and help market the products.

Source: PIB

UPSC Mains Practice Question

Q.What are Cooperative Societies? Discuss the role of Cooperatives in agriculture.

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