Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched world’s largest storage scheme for farmers with the inauguration of 11 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in several states.
Foundation stones were also laid for additional 500 PACS across the country for construction of godowns and other agri-infrastructure.
While speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said that 700 lakh (70 million) tonnes of storage capacity will be created over the next five years in the cooperative sector by constructing thousands of godowns and larger warehouses under this scheme.
“Cooperative sector is instrumental in shaping resilient economy and propelling the development of rural areas,” Modi said, highlighting the importance of the cooperative sector, and further urged cooperatives to help reduce import dependence on agricultural products, including edible oils, and fertilisers.
Noting that farmers suffered huge loss due to lack of storage facilities, Modi blamed the situation on governments before that of his BJP party.
“Previous governments never paid due attention to this problem," Modi accused. "But today through PACS, this problem is being addressed. Under the world's largest food grain storage programme, 700 lakh tonne storage capacity will be created in the next five years."
“With the creation of the huge storage facilities farmers would be able to store their produce in the godowns/warehouses, get institutional credit against it, and sell their items when market prices are remunerative,” he added.
The Prime Minister also inaugurated a project for computerisation of 18,000 PACS across the country.