By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 11, 2023: THE Union Cabinet, has approved a historic decision of setting up and promoting a national level cooperative society for organic products under the Multi State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002 with support from relevant Ministries especially the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (M/Doner) through their policies, schemes & agencies following the ‘Whole of the Government Approach'.

The Prime Minister has observed that all efforts should be made to leverage the strengths of cooperatives and transform them into successful and vibrant business enterprises to realize the vision of "Sahakar-se-Samriddhi".  It is thus imperative for the cooperatives to think globally and act locally to leverage their comparative advantage.

Therefore, there is a felt need for a national level cooperative society to be registered under Second Schedule of MSCS Act, 2002 for providing thrust to organic products from cooperative sector by acting as an umbrella organisation for managing various activities related to the organic sector.

PACS to APEX: Primary to national level cooperatives societies including primary societies, district, state and national level federations, multi state cooperative societies and Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) can become its Member.  All these cooperatives will have their elected representatives in the Board of the society as per its bye-laws.

The cooperative society will manage various activities related to organic sector by providing certified and authentic organic products.  It will help in unlocking demand and consumption potential of organic products in domestic as well as in global markets.  This society will also help cooperatives and ultimately their farmer members in getting benefits of high price of organic products through aggregation, branding and marketing on large scale by facilitating testing and certification at affordable cost.

The cooperative society will also provide institutional support for aggregation, certification, testing, procurement, storage, processing, branding, labelling, packaging, logistic facilities, marketing of organic products and arranging financial assistance to the organic farmers through is members cooperatives including Primary Agricultural Credit Societies/Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) and will take up all promotion and development related activities of organic products with the help of various schemes and agencies of the Government.  It will empanel accredited organic testing labs and certification bodies who mee the criteria specified by the society to bring down the cost of testing and certification.

The society will manage entire supply chain of organic products produced by cooperatives and related entities through member cooperatives It will utilize the services of national cooperative export society being set up under MSCS Act, 2002 for export marketing and thereby enhance reach and demand of organic products in global market.  It will also facilitate in providing technical guidance, training and capacity building of organic producer and developing and maintaining dedicated market intelligence system for organic produce.  While promoting organic farming, balanced approach will be maintained between regular mass farming and organic farming.