Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah recently revealed that 19 percent of agriculture finance, 35 percent of fertiliser distribution, 30 per cent fertiliser production, 40 percent of sugar production, 13 percent of procurement of wheat and 20 percent of paddy procurement is done by cooperatives societies.
Speaking in a conference in Bengaluru, Shah said “Out of 30 lakh cooperatives in the whole world, 9 lakh cooperatives are in India. About 91 per cent of India’s population is linked to a cooperative in one way or another Cooperatives cover 70 per cent of the country’s farmers through PACS,” Shah noted.
Shah added that necessary steps have been taken, to bring transparency in cooperatives and carry out computerization of 63,000 PACS across the country at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore. he said.
In addition, every panchayat of the country will have a multipurpose cooperative, Shah remarked.