The Union Government has approved an ambitious plan to establish new multipurpose Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), dairy and fishery cooperatives with the objective of covering all panchayats and villages across the country over the next five years, Union Minister for Cooperation Amit Shah informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
In a written reply, the Minister said that as per the National Cooperative Database (NCD), a total of 32,802 new PACS, Dairy and Fishery Cooperative Societies have already been registered, while 15,793 existing dairy and fisheries cooperatives have been strengthened across the country as on January 20, 2026. He clarified that independent or third-party evaluation of the newly formed cooperatives has not yet been contemplated.
Shah said the Government is carrying out state-wise and regional analysis using the NCD to identify gaps in cooperative coverage, including aspirational districts and underserved regions, to ensure balanced growth of the cooperative network.
Highlighting the push for digital transformation, the Minister said that out of 79,630 PACS sanctioned nationwide, 61,478 PACS have been digitised so far. These PACS have been enabled to provide modern financial services such as Shared Core Banking Solutions (CBS), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), UPI and other digital platforms, aimed at modernising cooperative banking services.
To strengthen governance and inclusivity, Model Bye-laws for PACS have been developed and circulated to all States and Union Territories. These bye-laws are intended to transform PACS into multipurpose, transparent and inclusive institutions, with provisions for broad-based membership and adequate representation of women and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST).
The Minister also referred to the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2023, which mandates two reserved board seats for women and one for SC/ST members in multi-State cooperatives. The National Cooperation Policy (NCP) 2025 further emphasises leadership roles for women and weaker sections. As of late 2025, 32 States and Union Territories have adopted or aligned their laws with the Model Bye-laws.
The revised PACS framework enables societies to operate as multipurpose service centres, allowing farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, to access affordable credit, quality inputs and allied services at a single point.
PACS are also being encouraged to undertake activities such as warehousing, custom hiring centres and primary processing to improve farmers’ income realisation. Support for women and Self-Help Groups is being strengthened through schemes such as Swayam Shakti Sahakar Yojana and Nandini Sahakar, which promote women-led cooperatives.
Providing details on implementation in Maharashtra, Shah said 12,178 PACS have been sanctioned for computerisation, with Rs 130.73 crore released for hardware procurement, ERP deployment, training and support systems. All 352 sanctioned PACS in Jalgaon district have been fully onboarded on the common national ERP-based software, achieving 100 per cent digitisation.
Capacity-building initiatives are being undertaken through national and regional institutions such as VAMNICOM (Pune) and ICM (Nagpur and Pune), which trained 37,070 participants between 2024 and December 2025. In addition, the Regional Training Centre of LINAC conducted 65 training programmes in Maharashtra during April 2022–December 2025.
The Minister said financial assistance is being extended through the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), which has cumulatively disbursed Rs 13,575.28 crore to cooperatives in Maharashtra, mainly benefiting the sugar, textile and fisheries sectors. He added that under the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan, several PACS have completed godown construction to help farmers avoid distress sales and secure better prices.
Sharing a regional snapshot, Shah informed that in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, 121 PACS, 420 Dairy Cooperative Societies and 22 Fishery Cooperative Societies have been established, with digitisation of all PACS already initiated.
