Bhubaneswar: The Cooperation Department has been mandated to provide all sorts of agricultural production inputs which includes credit for short-term seasonal agricultural operations, certified seeds, fertilizers, etc through a network of 2,710 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) and Large Size Adivasi Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPCS) functioning at the gram panchayat level.
A three-tier cooperative credit structure functions in Odisha with 2,710 PACS/LAMPCS at the gram panchayat level, 17 District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) at the district level, and the Odisha State Cooperative Bank Ltd (OSCB) at the state level. During the 2022 Kharif season, crop loan to the extent of Rs 8,710.78 crore has been disbursed to 18.02 lakh farmers. During the 2022-23 Rabi season, crop loan to the tune of Rs 7,972.79 crore has been disbursed to 16.55 lakh farmers. In compliance with the commitments made in the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) election manifesto, the department has enhanced the interest-free loan limit from Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh from the 2022 Kharif season, i.e. April 1, 2022, and about 7 lakh additional small and marginal farmers have directly reaped the benefit from this farmer-centric decision of the government.
In the last 20 years, the ambit of crop loans has expanded exponentially from 6.40 lakh farmers in 2000-01 to 34.57 lakh farmers in 2022-23. The amount of loans extended to farmers during this period has also registered a mammoth 38-fold increase, i.e. from Rs 438.36 crore to Rs 16,683.56 crore. During 2022-23, the PACS and LAMPCS have made available 1.12 lakh quintals of certified seeds and 1.69 lakh MT of chemical fertilizer to the farmers at their doorstep.
To bring the cooperative organisations closer to the rural populace and make them more accessible, the department has gone one step ahead to increase the network of these credit cooperatives by organizing 1,451 new PACS and LAMPCS with the ultimate aim to have one PACS/LAMPCS in every gram panchayat.
Working on the 5T mantra, the department has fixed an ambitious target to make all transactions in all these credit cooperatives online and has successfully on-boarded 2,295 PACS/LAMPCS in the Core Banking Solution (CBS) platform and enforced online transactions to bring in transparency by use of technology. This is the first of its kind in the entire country.
Further, the facilitation of marketing of agricultural and horticultural products is one of the key mandates of the department. All the 66 Regulated Market Committees functioning under the control of the department have been on-boarded in e-NAM, the pan-India online platform to facilitate online trading. Odisha ranks first among the 30 states in terms of the number of FPOs registered in the e-NAM portal and ranks 4thin terms of inter-mandi trade value. To further facilitate agri-marketing, the Odisha State Marketing Board (OSAM Board) under the aegis of the Cooperation Department has planned to organise buyer-seller meets in all the RMCs. The first buyer-seller meet has been organised on May 18 at Nabarangpur RMC and 17 tri-partite MoUs signed between buyers, sellers, and the RMC.
To protect the farmer from climatic uncertainties Cooperation Department has been implementing Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana since the 2016 Kharif season and 84.45 lakh farmers’ applications have been enrolled during 2022-23 under the scheme. During 2021-22, 31.93 lakh farmers’ applications received the claim benefit, and Rs 1166.02 crore of claims were transferred to the accounts of these farmers. The claim disbursement process for 2022-23 is underway.
For the next three years crop insurance cycle, i.e. Kharif-2023 to Rabi 2025-26, farmers’ share of the premium (2% of the sum insured) will be paid by the state government, making crop insurance completely free for farmers. This initiative is unique in the country.
As a way forward, the Department has taken certain transformative initiatives in the interest of farmers of the state:
- Linking all market yards, municipal markets, and Krushak Bazars with e-NAM.
- Setting up grading and cooling infrastructure in all major production clusters of fruits/vegetables to reduce losses and empower Mission Shakti Groups/FPOs.
- Set up Capital Region Agriculture Market at Jatni.
- Bring in over 40 lakh farmers under the coverage of the Cooperative Crop Loan dispensation mechanism.
- Bring more transparency in the implementation of crop insurance schemes and enhance the insurance coverage to over 15 lakh farmers.
- Set up the required infrastructure for banking/storage in all PACS.
- Operationalise over 3000 micro-ATMs in PACS to facilitate NPCI-approved payment transactions.
- To develop a State Cooperative Training Institute at Gopalpur-on-Sea.
