World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan

World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan

    The United Nations system values the important role of cooperatives in social development.  In   1995,   the  World   Summit   for   Social   Development   held    in Copenhagen recognized the importance of cooperatives in the people-centered approach to development and agreed to “utilize and develop fully the potential and contribution of cooperatives for the attainment of social development goals, in particular the eradication of poverty, the generation of full and productive employment, and the enhancement of social integration.” (Commitment 9h).

 The General Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO), in its 90th Session on 3 June 2002, inter-alia, adopted that the promotion and strengthening of the identity of cooperatives should be encouraged on the basis of:

(i) cooperative values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity; as well as ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others; and

(ii) cooperative principles as developed by the international cooperative movement. These principles are: voluntary and open membership; democratic member control; member economic participation; autonomy and independence; education, training and information; cooperation among cooperatives; and concern for community.

India fares well on above international parameters in the cooperative sector. The cooperative principles are already enshrined in the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002. In order to promote and strengthen the cooperatives in India, the Ministry of Cooperation, since its inception on 6th July 2021, has undertaken several initiatives to realize the vision of “Sahakar-se-Samriddhi” and to strengthen and deepen the cooperative movement from Primary to Apex level Cooperatives in the country. A list of initiatives taken and progress made so far is in Annexure I.

As per the World Cooperative Monitor (WCM) 2022, Cooperative organizations in India like IFFCO and GCMMF are ranked among the top two in the agriculture sector, ULCCS is ranked second in the Industry and utility sector and 12 cooperative banks (seven StCB and four UCB and one credit society) are among top 300 ranked cooperatives in the world.

Illustrious examples of a few Indian Cooperative models, which have proved their significant role in improving the socio-economic condition of their members, who are mainly from rural areas, are as under:

      In order to address the shortage of food grain storage capacity in the country, the Government on 31.05.2023, has approved the “World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector”, which has been rolled out as a Pilot Project in different States/UTs of the country.

The Plan entails creation of various agri infrastructure at PACS level, including setting up decentralized godowns, custom hiring center, processing units, Fair Price Shops, etc. through convergence of various existing schemes of the Government of India (GoI), such as, Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI), Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM), Pradhan Mantri Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME), etc., under which PACS can avail subsidies and interest subvention benefits for construction of godowns/storage facilities and setting up of other agri infrastructure. Further, NABARD is also extending financial support to PACS by refinancing them at highly subsidized rates of around 1 percent, after incorporating the benefits of 3% interest subvention under AIF scheme for projects up to Rs. 2 Crore.  Therefore, the plan aims to strengthen the economic condition of PACS by diversifying their business activities and giving them additional sources of revenue, thus improving their financial sustainability.

The Pilot Project is being implemented by National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) with the support of NABARD, Food Corporation of India (FCI), Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS), National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), etc. in different States/ UTs. Consultancy support is also being extended to PACS through these agencies under the project.

Further, an MoU has been signed between Ministry of Cooperation (GoI), Department of Food and Public Distribution (GoI), Food Corporation of India (FCI) and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) to ensure full capacity utilization of the storage capacity being created at PACS level under the Project. This will facilitate hiring of godowns constructed at PACS level by FCI, integration of these godowns with the supply chain of foodgrains, thereby providing requisite forward and backward market linkages to PACS. Also, an MoU has been signed between Ministry of Cooperation (GoI), Department of Consumer Affairs (GOI), NABARD, NCDC and NCCF for facilitating NCCF in carrying out construction and hiring of warehouses to be constructed at PACS level under this project.

States/ UTs and National level Cooperative Federations, like National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED), have identified more than 2,000 PACS for creation of storage capacity under the Pilot Project. Presently, construction of godown is in various stages in 13 PACS of 13 States/ UTs.

    Establishment of decentralized storage capacity at PACS level would reduce post harvest losses by creating sufficient storage capacity in the country and strengthen food security of the country up to Panchayat/village level. It will also prevent distress sale of crops by farmers and enable them to realise better prices for their crops. Since PACS would be operating as procurement centre as well as Fair Price Shops (FPS), the cost incurred in transportation of food grains to procurement centres and again transporting the stocks back from warehouses to FPS would also be saved.

The project will also provide various benefits to farmers and consumers, including the following:

Annexure-I

Brief of 54 initiatives taken by Ministry of Cooperation

Ministry of Cooperation, since its inception on 6^th July, 2021, has undertaken several initiatives to realize the vision of “Sahakar-se-Samriddhi” and to strengthen & deepen the cooperative movement from Primary to Apex level Cooperatives in the country. List of initiatives taken and progress made so far are as follows:

ANNEXURE-II

 

IFFCO’s Co-operative Model

 

Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Society, known as IFFCO, is a Multi-State Cooperative Society. Today, IFFCO has been ranked as the No. 1 cooperative in the world in the line-up of 300 top cooperatives of the world in the 2022 edition of the Annual World Cooperative Monitor (WCM) report based on the ratio of turnover over GDP per capita income, designed by International Cooperative Alliance (ICA).

IFFCO being an agriculture cooperative its membership is open to all agricultural cooperative societies from the primary/ village level to state and national cooperatives of India. IFFCO has a member base of more than 35,500 societies out of which more than 80% of the members are Primary Level Societies. The main business of the member societies is to sell IFFCO’s Quality Fertiliser to farmers. IFFCO has five state-of-the art plants located in Kalol, Kandla, Phulpur, Aonla & Paradeep. In order to meet the demand supply gap of Indian Fertiliser Industry, IFFCO has entered into Joint Venture Projects outside India in Oman, Jordan & Senegal etc. IFFCO also has a wholly owned subsidiary in Dubai which acts as an international trading arm of IFFCO and primarily helps to handle import, export and logistics support.

With time IFFCO has diversified into different areas such as Insurance, Agrochemicals, E-Commerce, Rural Finance, Special Economic Zone, Kisan Call Centre etc. for the benefit of farmers. IFFCO has promoted other cooperative Institution namely Indian Farm Forestry Development Cooperative Ltd. (IFFDC) which focuses on afforestation of wasteland and farm forestry, integrated watershed development, rural livelihood development, women empowerment, CSR etc.         

IFFCO is paying 20% dividends to the members on their paid-up share. Further, IFFCO is sharing its expertise, knowledge and experience with various countries like Brazil, Argentina, Mauritius, Jordan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Philippines etc, to strengthen cooperatives for mutual growth and business development.

In order to promote sustainable as well as environment-friendly agriculture, recently IFFCO has launched Nanotechnology based products i.e. Nano Urea and Nano DAP.     At present paid up Share Capital of the Society stood at Rs. 6126.5 million (Rs. 612.65 Crore) as on March 31, 2023.

 

ANNEXURE-III

 

AMUL’s Co-operative Model

 

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (Amul) is India’s largest FMCG company with annual brand sales turnover of Rs. 72,000 Crores. GCMMF (Amul) is a cooperative federation comprising 36 Lakh milk producers in Gujarat (India), organized under 18,600 village dairy cooperative societies. It handles more than 3 Crore litres of milk per day.

Amul’s three-tier structure has been a cornerstone of its success in India’s cooperative landscape. At the grassroots level are the primary milk producers, who give the milk to the village co-operative societies (VDCS). The District Cooperative Milk Producers’ union,  collects the milk from all VDCS of the district and  process the milk to  VDCS converts into the value-added products. The State level Milk Marketing Federation, overseeing sales and marketing of the products manufactured by all district unions of the state. This three-tier model ensures fair returns for farmers, efficient milk collection, and widespread availability of Amul products.

GCMMF (Amul) is Asia’s largest, and the world’s 8^th largest dairy company in terms of volume of milk handled (by International Farm Comparison Network 2020). In the year 2023 Amul has been recognised as the Strongest Dairy Brand in the World and 2^nd Strongest Food Brand in the World (by Brand Finance, UK). Amul ranks as 3^rd largest brand globally being picked up from shelves 6 billion times (by Kantar).

The Amul Model is also being replicated in the neighbouring countries of India and the countries of Africa continent.

   This was stated by the Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

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