World Bank President Ajay Banga lauded India’s producer cooperatives and digital innovations as transformative forces for smallholder agriculture during his speech at the 2025 AgriConnect event, held alongside the World Bank’s Annual Meetings.
Banga underscored the pivotal role these cooperatives play in boosting farmers’ incomes, building resilience, and providing a globally scalable model for inclusive agricultural development.
Banga emphasised that producer cooperatives act as critical connectors between small farmers and the broader agricultural ecosystem. By linking farmers to suppliers, insurers, buyers, and financial institutions, cooperatives ensure timely access to inputs like fertilisers and seeds, affordable credit, and predictable markets.
This network allows farmers to move beyond subsistence farming toward sustainable and commercially viable operations. Highlighting his early career experience in India with Nestle and his observations of the Amul Cooperative, Banga noted how such institutions transformed India from a milk-deficient country to the world’s largest milk producer. He stressed that these successes were not accidental but the result of structured cooperative engagement and supportive policies.
Resilience, Banga explained, is embedded at the core of India’s agricultural model. Practices such as heat-tolerant seeds, soil-specific fertilisers, efficient irrigation systems, and soil rejuvenation techniques protect farmers from climate risks. Complemented by robust insurance and financing frameworks, these measures ensure that adverse seasons do not escalate into financial crises for smallholders.
Digital technology, Banga said, serves as the “glue” that binds this cooperative ecosystem. Mobile-based advisory tools, AI-driven crop diagnostics, weather alerts, and secure digital payments streamline operations and create valuable data trails. These digital footprints enable credit histories for small farmers, lowering borrowing costs and attracting lenders, thus reinforcing a virtuous cycle of financial inclusion and productivity.
Citing Uttar Pradesh as a case study, Banga observed first-hand the integration of cooperatives, climate-resilient practices, and digital infrastructure, describing it as a “proof of concept” for a scalable and effective agricultural ecosystem. He encouraged replication of this cooperative-driven, digitally enhanced model across other regions and countries.
Banga concluded by highlighting the necessity of coordinated action. “It only succeeds if government, business, and development partners row in the same direction,” he said.
His remarks underscored the unique potential of India’s cooperative sector, supported by national policies, to uplift millions of small farmers, ensure food security, and contribute to economic growth, positioning India as a global exemplar in cooperative-led agricultural development.
Param aadarniye shriman Amitbhai Shah Sb., Sadar pranam ! It’s my pride privilege and great moment in my life to wish my heartiest greetings to a visionary leader on his birthday who could transform the co-operative sector of the country beyond my own and perhaps anybody’s imagination who have known the sector, in previous at least 3 decades before your good selves took the same under your leadership,merely as a breeding ground of corruption, a hub of untrained & low paid work- force, un – maintained office, department considered to be a place of inferior posting for government offices etc. was turned upside down in no time with your untiring consistent endeavours from PACS to National cooperative institutions giving impetus to cooperative movement in the country and worldwide. Recognition to the greatest visionary leader, Hon’ble Tribhuvandas Patel, is one of the most adorable steps taken by you in my opinion. I had preferred to do my MBA project assignment in BISCOMAUN as a student in the year 1985 and decided to join KRIBHCO as an Executive trainee to serve the sector leaving other even more other promising job offers knowing the real potential of cooperatives to bring economic and social change in rural folks of the country.I had compromised with the thought that no one can make it given the state of affairs of the sector in the entire country barring a few states like Gujarat and Karnataka but you truly belied my wrong notion. I wish you a very happy , healthy and prosperous long life ahead to ensure that the cooperative movement is strengthened further and touches the new heights. All the very best sir ! Regards. Dr. I. B. Singh, Former Chief General Manager (M),
KRIBHCO, Noida