Govt to strengthen cooperative sector and triple its share to country's GDP: Amit Shah

Gandhinagar, Dec 05: Union Minister for Cooperation Amit Shah on Friday said that as part of its "definite strategy", the government aims to triple the contribution of the cooperative sector to the country's GDP in the next few years and create more than 50 crore active cooperative members.

The government has also set the target of raising India's share in the global organic market to 20 per cent by 2030 and 40 per cent by 2035, Shah said in his address at the Earth Summit held at Mahatma Mandir Convention Centre in Gandhinagar.

The government wants to strengthen the cooperative sector across the country, he said.

Earth Summit is a national initiative led by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Shah said that after Narendra Modi became the prime minister, rural development, agriculture, animal husbandry, and cooperative sectors were recognised as the crucial components of the country's economic system and overall development.

"The vision of a fully developed India includes the well-being of every citizen, and in order to achieve that goal, focusing on the cooperative, agriculture, animal husbandry, and rural development sectors is essential," said Shah.

"Under a definite strategy, we have decided that in just a few years, we will establish a cooperative institution in every panchayat. We will create more than 50 crore active cooperative members and triple the contribution of cooperatives to the country's GDP," he added.

The Union Home Minister informed the audience that Banas Dairy in Gujarat has developed a model for a circular economy in the dairy sector and that model is now available for replication across the country.

Now, the cooperation ministry is working on developing a similar circular economy model for the sugarcane sector in the country, Shah announced on the occasion.

On the ministry's focus on the organic farming sector, Shah said the latest figures suggest that nearly 49 lakh farmers in the country have already adopted natural farming and there is a huge potential for the farmers.

"With the support of Bharat Organics and Amul, we are creating a chain of laboratories for conducting organic testing of farmers' land and produce as per international standards so that farmers can sell their organic food items easily. At present, nearly 40 such organic products, like wheat and rice, are already sold online," Shah said.

"We have set a target that India will have more than 20 per cent share in the huge global organic market by 2030 and 40 per cent share by 2035. For this purpose, we have established two multi-state cooperatives. While one of them will buy organic products from farmers, another will sell them. Money will be directly deposited into the bank accounts of farmers," he said.

About the Sahkar Taxi service, a cooperative sector initiative launched on trial basis in Delhi recently, Shah said nearly 51,000 drivers have already registered for the service.

"Our taxi drivers will receive their full earnings into their bank accounts. I am confident that in due course, this taxi service will become the largest taxi company in the country running on cooperative basis," Shah said.

"We are also bringing a cooperative insurance service - whether it's health insurance, life insurance, agriculture, or accident insurance - all types of insurance on a cooperative basis. And in every village, three young people will work as ambassadors for cooperative insurance. In a way, we want to strengthen the cooperative sector across the country," he said.