World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative

Government on 31.05.2023, has approved the “World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector”, and it has been rolled out as a Pilot Project. The Plan entails creation of various agri infrastructure at PACS level, including godowns, custom hiring centers, processing units, Fair Price Shops, etc. through convergence of various existing schemes of the Government of India (GoI), such as, Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure Scheme (AMI), Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM), Pradhan Mantri Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME), etc.

Under the Pilot Project of the Plan, construction of godowns has been completed in 11 PACS of 11 States. Further, more than 500 PACS have been identified for construction of godown under the project and efforts are being made to complete the construction by December 2026.

The Government of India has approved the plan to establish new multipurpose PACS/dairy/fisheries cooperatives, aiming to cover all panchayats and villages in the country over a period of five years. This initiative is supported by NABARD, NDDB, NFDB and State/UT Governments. For effective implementation of the initiative, ‘Margadarshika’ has been launched on 19.9.2024, indicating the targets and timelines for stakeholders. As per National Cooperative Database, a total of 22,933 new multipurpose PACS, Dairy and Fishery Cooperative Societies have been registered as on 30.06.2025 across the country since the approval of the plan on 15.2.2023 including 5,937 M-PACS.

In order to strengthen PACS, project for Computerization of functional PACS with a total financial outlay of ₹2925.39 Crore has been approved by the Government of India, which entails bringing all functional PACS in the Country onto a common ERP based national software, linking them with NABARD through StCBs and DCCBs. A total of 73,492 PACS from 31 States/ UTs have been sanctioned under the project. A total of 59,920 PACS have been onboarded on ERP Software and hardware has been procured by 30 States/UTs.

Under Computerization of PACS Project, total 5,628 PACS from the State of Karnataka have been sanctioned, out of which 3,765 PACS have been onboarded on ERP Software and hardware has been delivered in 5,491 PACS.

This article has been republished from PIB.