New Delhi: The Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Monday called for immediate action to expand the loan facility to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), to improve their financial condition.
Reviewing the scheme to build the world's largest cooperative food grain storage network, Shah emphasised the extensive involvement of PACS in the food storage scheme.
"It is necessary to make PACS an integral part of this scheme so that the financial viability and social effectiveness of PACS can be ensured," he said.
Shah directed the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution and Food Corporation of India (FCI) to conduct national-level mapping of warehouses across the country, so that the implementation of the scheme can be done smoothly as per regional requirements, according to an official statement.
The minister also instructed FCI, National Cooperative Consumers' Federation (NCCF), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and State Warehousing Corporations to connect PACS with as many warehouses as possible.
It was decided in the meeting that states should involve more PACS at their level in the scheme, and State-Level Marketing Federations should also be linked with it to develop a complete cooperative supply chain.
Shah called upon all organisations to coordinate and implement the scheme in a timely and effective manner so that it proves to be a milestone in achieving the goal of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' and 'Sahkar Se Samriddhi'.
The minister said there are two major parameters to measure economic progress in India -- Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment generation.
The food storage scheme is meant to strengthen both these aspects, aiming to increase the income of PACS as well as create rural employment opportunities.
Apart from Ministers of State for Cooperation Krishan Pal Gurjar and Murlidhar Mohol, officials from the Ministry of Cooperation, Food and Public Distribution, Consumer Affairs, FCI, NABARD, National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and other institutions were present in the meeting.
Currently, there are more than 1 lakh PACS in India according to the National Cooperative Database Portal.
The AIF was launched in 2020 to provide medium- to long-term debt financing for the development of agriculture infrastructure across the country. The scheme was initially set for a ten-year period (2020-2030) but has been extended to 2032-33.
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