PM Announces Mega Plan for Farmers

When the nation is witnessing the farmer’s protests again in Punjab with a possibility to spread it to other parts of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a plan to set up the world’s largest grain storage in the co-operative sector. He has inaugurated a pilot project that is being undertaken in eleven Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in eleven states. Prime Minister said that the farmers incur losses due to the lack of storage infrastructure. He was critical of the previous governments before his regime that never focused on the storage of the agricultural produce as per him. Modi announced that his government  will address this shortcoming by setting up an infrastructure  of 700 lakh metric tonnes over the next five years for storing the agricultural produce. It will cost  Rs.1.25 lakh crore. It will enable the farmers to store their produce and then sell it as per their need and convenience. Prime Minister said that it will also enable them to avail loans from the banks. As part of this initiative he laid the  foundation stone  for the construction of the additional  500 PACS  godowns  and other agri infrastructure. Prime Minister also inaugurated a project for the computerisation in 18000 PACS across the country. It is meant to align the traditional farming with the cutting edge technology and shifting to fully digital payments. This  launch of multiple  initiatives  for the cooperative sector at the Bharat  Mandapam in New Delhi is  intended to address  the main concern of the farmers regarding storage of their agricultural produce. It is to be noted that this major initiative has been launched well before the announcement of the Model Code of Conduct for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The urgency of launching of this mega initiative for the Indian farmers at this juncture on priority can be gauged from the fact that whatever the politics behind the farmer agitation. One thing is clear that in Indian policy making the farmers shape the national discourse that can have long term consequences. No political party can afford to take the farmers for granted and dilute their genuine demands. Farmers have re-launched their agitation so that their demands are accepted by the Central Government. The primary demand being the legal guarantee of Minimum support Price (MSP) for 23 crops. Prime Minister has said the vision of “Sahakar  se Samridhi” (prosperity  through  cooperatives) is   meant to rejuvenate  the cooperative sector  and empower  small and marginal  farmers. He underlined the role of cooperatives in strengthening the farming. And said that this was the rationale to set up the separate Ministry for the cooperatives. Prime Minister has urged the cooperatives to diversify into fertilisers, edible oil and pulses. And rightly so. As it will enable the allied sectors in agriculture to integrate and develop a comprehensive supply chain and value chain. This model will go in a long way to address the gap in reaching out to the different markets. The success story of the AMUL is a testimony to the success of the farmer oriented and farmer driven business model in agri – business. It has not only changed the way we look towards the market in terms of agri- business but has also given India a hope to adopt it in various parts of the country. As the AMUL model was based on the Indian needs and indigenous wisdom. It has ended up empowering the farmers at the grass root level and infusing confidence and conviction in them to retain the traditional farming practices and go for the value addition. For such models to succeed there is a need for a synergy at the social, political and technical level. AMUL model succeeded as it was guided by the visionaries from all the fields. Tribhuvan Dass Patel led at the policy making level, farmers at the social level and Dr. Verghese Kurien led at the technical, marketing and overall management level. The Central Government needs to have a relook and replicate the AMUL Model with the more value additions to make India a leader in agri-business.