Parliament Question: Establishment of PACS

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COOPERATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2531 TO BE ANSWERED ON 4th AUGUST 2026 ‘Establishment of PACS’

2531. Shri Zia Ur Rehman:

Will the Minister of COOPERATION (सहकारिता मंत्री) be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has taken steps to strengthen Primary Agricultural Credit Societies

(PACS), if so, the details thereof; and

(b) whether new PACS have been established during the last three years State-wise and if so, the details thereof? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF COOPERATION सहकारिता मंत्री (SHRI AMIT SHAH)

(a): The Ministry of Cooperation has adopted a "Whole-of-Government" approach to strengthen Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) as vibrant, transparent and economically sustainable grassroots institutions by converging schemes and services of various Ministries/Departments at the PACS level. Towards this objective, following initiatives have been undertaken:

(i) Computerization of PACS To strengthen Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), the Government launched the Central Sector Project for Computerization of PACS in 2022. Under the project, functional PACS are being brought onto a common Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)-based national software platform and linked with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) through State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs), with the objective of improving operational efficiency, transparency, accountability, and ease of doing business in the cooperative sector.

(ii) Decentralised Grain Storage Programme The Government approved the Decentralized Storage Plan in the Cooperative Sector on 31 May 2023 to strengthen agricultural infrastructure at the PACS level. The programme envisages creation of decentralized storage infrastructure, including warehouses, custom hiring centres, primary Page 1 of 3processing units and Fair Price Shops, through convergence of existing Government schemes such as:

• Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF); • Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI); • Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM); and • Pradhan Mantri Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME).

(iii) Business Diversification of PACS by enabling them to function as Multipurpose Institutions Model Bye-laws have been formulated and circulated to all States/UTs to enable Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) to diversify into more than 25 economic activities, including dairy, fisheries, floriculture, food grain procurement, warehousing, fertilizer and seed distribution, custom hiring centres, LPG/CNG/Petrol/Diesel distributorships, Fair Price Shops and other farmer- centric activities.

After adoption of the Model Bye-laws, PACS have also been enabled to undertake the following

activities: • Common Service Centres (CSCs): PACS have been enabled to provide more than 300 citizen-centric digital services, including banking, insurance, Aadhaar enrolment/updation and other e-Governance services.

• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samriddhi Kendras (PMKSKs): PACS have been upgraded as PMKSKs for providing fertilizers, pesticides and other agricultural inputs under one roof. • Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras (PMBJKs): PACS have been made operational as PMBJKs for providing quality generic medicines at affordable prices in rural areas.

• Retail Petrol/Diesel Outlets: PACS have been accorded priority under Combined Category-2 (CC-2) for allotment of retail outlets.

(b) The State-wise details of new PACS established during last three years is enclosed at Annexure. ***** Page 2 of 3Annexure New PACS Formed during last three Years S. No State MPACS 1 ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS 1 2 ANDHRA PRADESH 11 3 ARUNACHAL PRADESH 136 4 ASSAM 580 5 BIHAR 61 6 CHHATTISGARH 517 7 GOA 38 8 GUJARAT 662 9 HARYANA 40 10 HIMACHAL PRADESH 136 11 JAMMU AND KASHMIR 232 12 JHARKHAND 45 13 KARNATAKA 265 14 KERALA 0 15 LADAKH 3 16 LAKSHADWEEP 0 17 MADHYA PRADESH 680 18 MAHARASHTRA 212 19 MANIPUR 127 20 MEGHALAYA 290 21 MIZORAM 97 22 NAGALAND 50 23 ODISHA 1539 24 PUDUCHERRY 4 25 PUNJAB 153 26 RAJASTHAN 2003 27 SIKKIM 27 28 TAMIL NADU 27 29 TELANGANA 0 30 DD & DNH 5 31 TRIPURA 294 32 UTTAR PRADESH 1364 33 UTTARAKHAND 606 34 WEST BENGAL 25 Grand Total 10,230 Page 3 of 3