Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah will launch three major initiatives including ‘White Revolution 2.0’ to transform the dairy sector on Thursday. Apart from White Revolution 2.0, the other two initiatives include distribution of micro-ATMs and RuPay-Kisan Credit Cards to dairy farmers, aimed at increasing their financial access. White Revolution 2.0 aims to increase milk procurement by dairy cooperatives by 50 per cent in the next five years. A senior official of the Ministry of Cooperation said, “Our aim is to provide access to dairy farmers in villages and panchayats where milk procurement is not done, thereby increasing the share of the organized sector in milk procurement.
Co-operative societies will be strengthened
The scheme involves setting up and strengthening one lakh existing district cooperative societies, multi-purpose district cooperative societies and multi-purpose primary agricultural credit societies (M-PACS). These will be linked to milk routes, where necessary infrastructure will be provided. Initially, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) will fund the initiative from its own resources, providing Rs 40,000 per M-PACS to 1,000 M-PACS. Future funding is expected from the proposed National Dairy Development Programme 2.0.
You will get interest free cash loan
The second initiative, ‘Cooperation among cooperatives’, will provide interest-free cash loans to dairy farmers through RuPay-Kisan Credit Cards. “This will lead to huge savings for farmers who currently take loans at 24 per cent interest,” the official said. Additionally, micro-ATMs will be distributed to dairy cooperatives, turning them into bank-mitras for district credit cooperative banks. The move is aimed at taking banking services to the doorstep of farmers and keeping cooperative funds within the sector. The ministry has also planned computerisation of 67,930 ‘PACS’, potentially benefiting about 13 crore farmers. An action plan has been prepared to create one lakh new multipurpose PACS, dairy and fisheries cooperatives in all gram panchayats in the next five years. These initiatives are part of a broader strategy to develop the dairy sector, increase milk production to meet domestic demand and tap export potential. The government has also signed MoUs with various organisations for related projects, including procurement of organic products and development of maize hybrids for ethanol production.
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