Govt to Utilise PACS as ‘Drone Entrepreneurs’ for Spraying Fertilisers
26-08-2023
12:36 PM
What’s in today’s article?
- Why in News?
- What Is a Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS)?
- Why Are PACS Attractive?
- News Summary
- About Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samriddhi Kendras (PMKSK)
Why in News?
- Ministry of Cooperation issued a statement that Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) can also be employed as drone entrepreneurs for spraying fertilisers and pesticides.
What Is a Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS)?
- PACS are village level cooperative credit societies that serve as the last link in a three-tier cooperative credit structure headed by the State Cooperative Banks (SCB) at the state level.
- Credit from the SCBs is transferred to the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs), that operate at the district level.
- The DCCBs work with PACS, which deal directly with farmers.
- Since these are cooperative bodies, individual farmers are members of the PACS, and office-bearers are elected from within them. A village can have multiple PACS.
- PACSs provide short-term, and medium-term agricultural loans to the farmers for the various agricultural and farming activities.
- The first PACS was formed in 1904.
· Currently, there are more than 1,00,000 PACS in the country with a huge member base of more than 13 crore farmers. However, only 63,000 of them are functional.
Why Are PACS Attractive?
- The attraction of the PACS lies in the last mile connectivity they offer.
- For farmers, timely access to capital is necessary at the start of their agricultural activities.
- PACS have the capacity to extend credit with minimal paperwork within a short time.
- With other scheduled commercial banks, farmers have often complained of tedious paperwork and red tape.
- For farmers, PACS provide strength in numbers, as most of the paperwork is taken care of by the office-bearer of the PACS.
- In the case of scheduled commercial banks, farmers have to individually meet the requirement and often have to take the help of agents to get their loans sanctioned.
- Major Drawback of PACS –
- Since PACS are cooperative bodies, however, political compulsions often trump financial discipline, and the recovery of loans is hit.
- Chairpersons of PACS participate in electing the office-bearers of DCCBs.
- Political affiliations are important here as well.
News Summary
- Ministry of Cooperation issued a statement that Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) can also be employed as drone entrepreneurs for spraying fertilisers and pesticides.
- The statement also said that the PACS which are not currently functioning as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samridhi Kendras will be brought under their ambit.
About Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samriddhi Kendras (PMKSK)
- The Central government launched 600 Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samriddhi Kendras in 2022.
- These Kendras are one-stop solutions to farmers in the form of crop advisories, soil- and seed-testing facilities, retailing seeds and pesticides, and even custom hiring of agricultural equipment and machines.
- PMKSK functions under the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers.
Q1) What is the role of NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development)?
NABARD is a Development Bank with a mandate for providing and regulating credit for the development of agriculture, small-scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other allied economic activities in rural areas to promote prosperity of rural areas.
Q2) What is meant by Kisan Credit Card?
The Kisan Credit Card scheme is a Government of India scheme which provides farmers with timely access to credit. The Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme was launched in 1998 with the aim of providing short-term formal credit to farmers and was created by NABARD.
Source: Govt to utilise PACS as ‘drone entrepreneurs’ for spraying fertilisers