Agricultural Cooperation
I. Assistance to NCDC Programmes for Development of Cooperatives
The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DACFW) is implementing cooperative development programmes through the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). The Central Sector Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Cooperation (CSISAC) is being implemented through NCDC. The three components of the Scheme are (i) assistance to cooperative marketing,
processing, storage, consumer cooperatives, weaker section programmes of cooperatives, computerization of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies, District Central Cooperative Banks, State Cooperative Banks and Technical and Promotional (T&P) Cell Scheme for strengthening Management of State Cooperative Federations; (ii) Assistance for cotton development including ginning and pressing and establishment of new and modernization/ expansion/rehabilitation of existing cooperative spinning mills; and (iii) Integrated Cooperative Development
Projects in selected districts. Under this scheme, subsidy component is provided by the Government of India and the loan component is arranged by NCDC through its own sources.
NCDC is a non-equity based development financing institution created exclusively for the cooperative sector with the aim and objectives to promote, strengthen and develop farmers’ cooperatives; assist programmes of cooperatives for supply of inputs, processing, storage and marketing of agricultural produce and consumer goods and those dealing with notified commodities and services; and assist cooperatives of weaker sections such as those comprising of members from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, labour and women and those working in the handloom, sericulture, poultry, fishery and dairy sectors etc. The Central Government has prescribed an overall ceiling of twenty five percent (25%) of annual budget of NCDC for financing all activities under notified services so that the focus of NCDC continues on financing of cooperatives in the agriculture and allied sector. In 2020- 21, an assistance of Rs.16108.44 crore has been disbursed (as on 31.12.2020) against an approved outlay of Rs.13400.00 crore for the various programmes implemented by NCDC.
1. Brief of the performance under the three components of the CSISAC Scheme:
i. Cooperative Spinning Mills: In order to improve the economic condition of cotton growers as well as handloom and powerloom weavers and to consolidate the gains achieved so far, the Department, through NCDC, continued to provide financial assistance to spinning mills and ginning and pressing units in
the cooperative sector. Assistance is provided for establishment of new cooperative spinning mills;
modernisation/expansion of existing spinning mills, establishment of modern ginning and pressing units, modernisation/expansion of existing units etc. During the year 2020-21, NCDC disbursed Rs.68.24 crore (as on 31.12.2020) for this component.
ii. Cooperative Storage: DACFW through NCDC has been making systematic and sustained efforts to assist cooperatives in creating additional storage capacity aimed at facilitating expanded operations of cooperative marketing of agriculture produce, distribution of inputs and sale of consumer articles. As on 31.03.2020 storage capacity assisted by NCDC stood at 165.215 lakh MT and a total amount of Rs.1091.82 crore has been disbursed under various programmes towards construction of godowns, repair and renovation of godowns, technical and margin money assistance for business promotion. During the year 2020-21 (as on 31.12.2020), Rs.4.73 crore has been disbursed for the storage programme.
iii. Cold Chain: As on 31.03.2020, NCDC has cumulatively disbursed Rs.225.234 crore for 317 cold storage projects and 3 cold chain projects with a capacity of 9.889 lakh MT. Against this, 306 cooperative cold storage projects with a total capacity of 9.359 lakh MT assisted by NCDC have been completed / installed. This includes 36 projects of capacity expansion of 1.278 lakh MT.
Besides, 11 cold storage projects of
0.339 lakh MT (including 2 capacity expansion projects of 0.144 lakh MT) along with 3 cold chain projects of 0.189 lakh MT standalone capacity are under implementation.
iv. Foodgrains: NCDC provides financial assistance for setting up of foodgrain processing units such as rice mills, rice flakes unit, dal mills, wheat flour mills, maize processing units, cattle feed plants etc. During 2020-21 (as on 31.12.2020), NCDC disbursed Rs.1.07 crore and cumulatively disbursed Rs.168.01 crore for this programme.
v. Oilseeds: NCDC provides financial assistance for establishment of oilseed processing units. During the year 2020-21 (as on 31.12.2020) NCDC disbursed Rs.1.65 crore (subsidy) and cumulatively NCDC has disbursed Rs.695.08 crore for oilseed processing units.
vi. Plantation Crop: NCDC provide financial assistance for establishment of units for processing of plantation crops and for meeting working capital requirement of plantation crops growers cooperatives. During 2020-21 (as on 31.12.2020), NCDC disbursed Rs.2.21 crore and cumulatively NCDC has disbursed Rs.176.01 crore for this activity.
vii. Fruit and Vegetable: NCDC provides financial assistance for setting up of fruit and vegetable processing units by cooperatives. The primary objective of the NCDC Scheme is to provide the benefit of value addition to growers in respect of their horticulture produce through processing in an efficient manner,
which in turn helps in increasing the income of the farmers. During 2020-21 (as on 31.12.2020), NCDC sanctioned Rs.0.15 crore to 2 societies. Cumulatively upto 31.12.2020, NCDC has disbursed Rs.61.09 crore for 80 fruit and vegetable processing units.
viii. Cooperatives for Weaker Sections:
NCDC is promoting and financing programmes for weaker sections and different types of projects for societies belonging to fishery, poultry, dairy, livestock, handloom, coir, jute etc.
a) Fisheries: NCDC provides assistance to fishery cooperatives to take up activities relating to production, processing, storage, marketing, etc. During 2020-21 (as on 31.12.2020), NCDC sanctioned Rs.156.77 crore (Rs.119.31 crore as loan and Rs.37.45 crore as subsidy) and disbursed Rs.27.49 crore.
Cumulatively, as on 31.12.2020, NCDC has disbursed Rs.2111.02 crore under this head.
b) Poultry: NCDC has been extending assistance to poultry cooperatives.
Cumulatively, NCDC has disbursed Rs.96.383 crore to 379 units/
projects.
c) Dairy and Livestock: NCDC provides financial assistance to Primary, District and State level dairy cooperatives for Integrated Livestock projects/ modernisation/
expansion/ renovation of existing units; processing and marketing Infrastructure; purchase of equipment and transport vehicles;
and margin money requirements.
During 2020-21 (as on 31.12.2020), NCDC has sanctioned financial assistance of Rs.34.35 crore and disbursed Rs.157.40 crore.
Cumulatively, as on 31.12.2020, NCDC has disbursed an amount of Rs.5876.64 crore to dairy and livestock cooperatives.
d) Handloom: NCDC provides financial assistance for the development of handloom cooperatives right from the Apex, Regional to Primary Handloom Cooperatives. Since inception of the scheme, NCDC has disbursed an amount of Rs.468.75 crore to 3478 units.
e) Coir: NCDC provides financial assistance for the development of coir cooperatives for strengthening of share capital base/margin money assistance, creation of processing facilities, construction of godowns
& showrooms and purchase of transport vehicles by Apex/Regional level coir cooperatives. During the last 3 years, NCDC released Rs.110 crore to the Government of Kerala for integrated development of the coir sector. Since inception of the scheme, NCDC has disbursed an amount of Rs.177.57 crore to 421 units.
f) Jute: The scheme for development of jute cooperatives includes establishment/ expansion/
modernization of jute mills and construction of godowns and showrooms. In 2019, NCDC disbursed Rs.35.64 crore (Rs.32.72 crore as loan and Rs.2.92 crore as CSISAC subsidy) to the Government of Assam for establishment of a composite jute mill by the Assam
Cooperative Jute Mills Limited.
Since inception of the scheme, cumulatively, NCDC has sanctioned Rs.48.37 crore for 184 units/
projects and disbursed Rs.39.61 crore for 183 units/projects.
ix. Consumer Cooperatives: NCDC provides financial assistance for various consumer activities to primary cooperatives, District Wholesale Consumer Stores and State Consumer Federations for undertaking distribution of consumer goods in rural and urban areas. Under the CSISAC Scheme, as on 31.12.2020, NCDC has disbursed Rs.0.69 crore in 2020- 21 and cumulative release stood at Rs.328.30 crore.
x. Computerisation of Cooperatives:
NCDC has been encouraging and financing cooperatives for computerization from the primary to the national level by providing financial assistance for computerization which includes cost of hardware, system and application software, networking, technical manpower, maintenance, infrastructure and site preparation, training and capacity building as well as technical guidance for computerization of their processes. During the year 2020-21 (as on 31.12.2020), NCDC disbursed Rs.21.86 crore to Societies/
Cooperative banks and cumulatively disbursed Rs.567.20 crore for this activity.
xi. Integrated Cooperative Development Projects: NCDC is implementing the Integrated Cooperative Development Projects (ICDP) scheme in selected districts.
During the year 2020-21 (as on 31.12.2020) NCDC has disbursed loan assistance of Rs.49.17 crore and subsidy of Rs. 42.35 crore totaling to Rs.91.52 crore for ICD projects. The subsidy of Rs.42.35 crore includes Rs.11.48 crore towards manpower development and training and managerial assistance to Project Implementation Agency (PIA) and Monitoring Cell etc.
Cooperatives in Least-Developed/ Under- Developed States
The process of economic development in the country brought to light certain regional disparities and imbalances in some parts due to inherent factors like topography, agro- climatic conditions and poor infrastructure.
Financial assistance, on liberal terms, is provided by NCDC to the Cooperatively Least-Developed /Under Developed States (UD/LD States) under its various schemes.
Assistance for cooperative programmes in these States is provided on comparatively liberal terms entailing a subsidy component.
For the purposes of funding by NCDC, the Government of India has categorized 10 States and 2 UTs as Cooperatively Least- Developed and placed 11 States and 2 Union Territories’ in the category of Cooperatively Under-Developed States as follows:
- Cooperatively Least-Developed States/UTs: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir (UT) and Ladakh (UT).
- Cooperatively Under-Developed States/UTs: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands (UT) and Lakshadweep (UT).
During 2020-21, under all programmes under implementation including CSISAC, NCDC sanctioned financial assistance of Rs.16739.94 crore and disbursed Rs.9381.18 crore to LD/UD States accounting for 70.31%
and 58.24% of total sanction and release respectively. Cumulatively, as on 31.12.2020, Rs.114420.18 crore was released to LD/UD States under various schemes of NCDC which accounts for around 67.82% of the total assistance of Rs.168702.69 crore released by the Corporation, so far.
Development of Women Cooperatives:
NCDC encourages women cooperatives to avail assistance under its various schemes. A large number of women members are engaged and involved in cooperative dealing with activities related to food grain processing, plantation crops, oilseeds processing, fisheries, dairy & livestock, spinning mills, handloom and power loom weaving, Integrated Cooperative Development Projects etc.
Women Cooperatives are covered under the Weaker Section programme for the purpose of availing subsidy and concessional funding under the Central Sector Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Cooperation. NCDC has launched a unique Scheme called the “Yuva Sahakar” in 2019-20. It aims at encouraging newly formed cooperative societies with new and/or innovative ideas.
Under the scheme, NCDC provides 2% less than its applicable rate of interest on term loan for project activities in cases of timely repayments. It is more liberal to cooperatives with 100% women members, amongst others. The project cost is capped at Rs. 3.00 crore in case of a cooperative society which is
in operation for one year or more and Rs.1.00 crore in case of a cooperative society which is in operation for more than 03 months but less than one year.
During the FY 2020-21 (as on 31.12.2020), NCDC has sanctioned Rs.632.14 crore to 06 units of women cooperatives for foodgrain, service cooperatives and Yuva Sahakar in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal and disbursed Rs.590.86 crore. NCDC assistance has been provided in the form of term loan and working capital loan to meet their fund requirement towards expansion of their businesses.
In the 06 projects sanctioned exclusively for women cooperatives in FY 2020-21, more than 90.26 lakh women members of these