The Union Budget presented by Finance. Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will have a long term impact on the growth of the cooperative movement in the country.

It may be recalled that the budget speech by HM Patel for 1977-78 on 17th June 1977 when Morarji Desai was the Prime Minister, he had mentioned “Special emphasis will need to be laid on development of dairy industry on a cooperative basis ‘with a view to enabling milk producers to get better and fair prices’.

Creditable progress has been made in the first phase of Operation Flood Scheme and we must now get moving to take the full advantage of Operation Flood Phase II.” This paved way for the growth of our dairy industry on the Amul model across the country which made India the largest producer of milk in the world. It is indeed remarkable as it was Morarjibhai Desai who was deputed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to organize farmers under cooperatives at Anand in the 1940s and as the Prime Minister of India, he gave a strong support to this model.

On similar lines, in the 2023 Budget Speech, the Finance Minister had announced that cooperation is a value to be cherished. In realizing our Prime Minister’s goal of “Sahkar se Samriddhi”, and his resolve to “connect the spirit of cooperation with the spirit of Amrit Kaal” a slew of measures were announced for the cooperative sector. She added “for farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, and other marginalised sections, the government is promoting cooperative-based economic development model. A new Ministry of Cooperation was formed with a mandate to realise the vision of ‘Sahakar Se Samriddhi’.

Cooperative thrust

Since the last 3 years of this new Ministry of Cooperation headed by Amit Shah, Minister of Home and Cooperation, a series of measures have been taken to boost the presence of cooperatives across India.

The Finance Minister has today announced the roll out of the National Cooperation Policy for systematic, orderly and all-round development of the cooperative sector. It is a necessary step for enabling the fast-tracking growth of rural economy and generation of employment opportunities on a large scale.

As a member of the committee drafting the policy, I am confident that this will usher in a new era for the cooperative movement in the country with sharp focus on deepening the cooperative movement, promoting level playing field of cooperatives, credit, infrastructure and technology adaption, Governance, education, training, marketing and social inclusion.

Multistate co-ops

The three new Multistate cooperatives on Exports, Organics and Seeds promoted by leading cooperatives of India viz. Amul, IFFCO, Kribhco, NAFED, NCDC, NDDB and NCCF have already started working on their assigned objectives.

National Cooperative Exports Ltd (NCEL) has already executed more than 9 lac MT of export orders worth Rs 3800 crores in first 7 months of operations. Amul has become the largest food and FMCG brand of the country with sales turnover of more than 80,000 crores just because it got access to the Bombay market at the time of inception 77 years back. The future of our farmers is bright as they will get global market access through the new Multistate cooperative on Exports.

More than 68,000 primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) across India are being strengthened through computerization and making them multipurpose. And all of them are being encouraged to apply for membership of the 3 new multi state cooperatives. Thus, it is heartening to see that the National Cooperative Organics Ltd has more than 6,800 applications for membership and the Multi state cooperative on seeds has received more than 17,800 membership applications pan India.

Organic farming

One of the most promising opportunities enlisted in the budget was motivating the farmers to practice natural and organic farming. Over the next two years, 1 crore farmers across the country will be initiated into natural farming supported by certification and branding. With a focus on reducing the usage of fertilizer and pesticides, the government will ensure the usage of natural and organic Products and promote the health of its citizens. Amul and NCOL will be contributing to these efforts by launching a wide range of organic products.

Milk is the largest agricultural crop of India with a value of output more than ₹12 lakh crores with more than 8 crore families dependent of it for their livelihood. It is the largest agricultural produce to contribute to the GDP, more than the combined contribution of paddy, pulses and wheat. The budget has earmarked a financial outlay of ₹2465 crore for the livestock health and disease control program for vaccinating 50 crore cattle against FMD and establishing 4145 mobile veterinary units. This will improve the accessibility of healthcare to our cattle in a timely manner. Under Rashtriya Gokul Mission, an outlay of ₹700 crore will be used for artificial insemination of 10 Crore cattle and breed improvement by using 20 lakh sex sorted semen as well 4,000 IVF Embryo transfers to increase productivity among cattle.

PLI for food processing

The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the Food Processing industry has an outlay of Rs. 1444 Crores to promote the Indian food products like Mozzarella Cheese as well as organic product and millets. Amul has already completed the largest investment under PLI in the applicable sectors and is also being supported in building the Taste of India brand across the world under this scheme.

India currently producers 24% of the total milk in the world and is likely to have a share of more than one third of the total world milk production in the next decade. Income of farmers from milk is taxable and it would do a lot of good if the income from milk is treated as agricultural income and exempted from Income Tax. This will benefit millions of farmers, particularly women milk producers across India.

The year 2025 has been declared as the International Year of Cooperatives by the United Nations. The four key stakeholders – farmers, women, poor and youth will surely benefit through the cooperative model in the years to come.

The writer is Managing Director of GCMMF