Cooperative Ministers of States and Union Territories will be meeting in N Delhi on Wednesday to discuss disbursement of farm credit through cooperatives and new scheme for rehabilitation and reconstruction of cooperatives.
Union Agriculture and Food Processing Minister Sharad Pawar will inaugurate the day-long national conference. Disbursement of farm credit through cooperatives will be discussed, since cooperatives play a significant role in making farm loans available at the ground level, an official statement said on Tuesday.
In 2009-10, cooperative credit institutions disbursed Rs 63,143 crore for agriculture and allied activities. The Centre will bring for discussion a new scheme for rehabilitation and reconstruction of cooperatives. The proposed scheme aims at rehabilitating potentially viable sick cooperative societies and societies in initial stage of sickness.
It is also proposed to constitute a fund for this purpose. The conference will take stock of the implementation of the revival package for short-term cooperative credit structure, the statement added. The Rs 13,596 crore package was approved on the recommendations of the task force under A Vaidyanathan.
Twenty-five States have so far signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NABARD for implementation of the package. Ministers will also discuss the steps needed to enable cooperatives to compete in the present highly competitive and liberalised trade regime. The participants would also deliberate on ways to ensure autonomy and democratic functioning in the cooperative institutions.