In his 30 minutes speech Union Minister Amit Shah touched upon many aspects of Agriculture and Rural Development Banks and that of the co-operative sector. For co-operators benefits we are summing them in bullet points
- Agriculture and Rural Development Banks should not only work for banking, but it should also be their goal to supplement/reimburse, the purpose for which banks were created
- Members of all banks who are attending this conference should also discuss the sector’s best practices, if any reforms or changes are needed to bring about new diversification within the banking sector, the doors of the Ministry of Cooperation are open for you 24×7
- Do not limit yourselves to banking, it is also the responsibility of ARDBs to communicate with farmers in villages and make them aware on how to expand agriculture, increase yield, make agriculture comfortable and make the farmer prosperous
- The objectives of NABARD can be fulfilled only when every single penny with them is utilised for finance and refinance in rural development and agriculture and this cannot be possible unless we promote long-term finance, infrastructure and micro irrigation within the agriculture sector
- It was due to the infrastructure created by Agriculture and Rural Development Banks that farmers were converted from a monsoon dependent lot to hardworking pack, not dependent on luck
- We do not have a unified database on the cooperative sector, and unless there is a database, one cannot think of expansion of this sector and expansion can happen only when you know where to expand, Ministry of Cooperation is creating a database of the cooperative sector
- The Ministry of Cooperation is working towards making PACS multidimensional, and we have also shared Model Bye-Laws with the States for discussion
- Increasing the expanse of cooperatives, we are adding new activities in PACS by changing 70-80 years old laws
- The Cooperative sector can only convert 70 crore poor of the country into partners in the process of inclusive development
- Many banks undertook reforms but those reforms remained limited to banks, their benefit was not available to the entire sector, bank specific reforms cannot change the sector, if reforms are established in this sector, then the cooperative sector will automatically be strong
- After independence, 64 lakh hectares of land became cultivable in 70 years, but under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, 64 lakh hectares of agricultural land increased in the last 8 years, agricultural exports have crossed US $50 billion for the first time, it is the empathy of the government under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi towards farmers’ welfare
- India ranks second in the world in agricultural activities with 394 million acres of land, and if we connect this land with the irrigation system, then our farmers can fulfill the food supply requirements of the country as well as the world
- If we revive the spirit of cooperatives and our goals and remain dedicated to these goals, make efforts to achieve the target, then surely in the coming days, cooperatives will have a huge role in fulfilling Shri Narendra Modi’s dream of a US $5 trillion-dollar economy
- Multi state co-op society export house to be formed before 15th August
