In order to create decentralized food grain storage capacity in the country, the Government on 31.5.2023 approved the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector, which has been rolled out as a Pilot Project. It entails creation of various agri infrastructure at the level of Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS), including setting up decentralized godowns, custom hiring center, processing units, sorting and grading facilities, cold storage units, packhouses 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.

The Plan addresses transportation and distribution challenges by enabling local storage of grains at the PACS level, minimizing long-distance transportation costs and losses. Additionally, by integrating PACS with agri-marketing and procurement systems, direct access to storage facilities is ensured for farmers, reducing their dependence on intermediaries. Hence, the Plan aims to ensure better price realization for farmers, reduce transportation costs, and create employment opportunities in rural areas.

Under the Pilot project of the Plan, 11 godowns in 11 PACS have been constructed across the country and a total storage capacity of 9,750 MT has been created.

The Government on 15.2.2023, has approved the Plan for strengthening cooperative movement in the country and deepening its reach up to the grassroots. The Plan entails establishment of 2 lakh new multipurpose PACS (M-PACS), Dairy, Fishery Cooperative Societies covering all the Panchayats/ villages in the country in five years, through convergence of various existing GOI schemes, including Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF), National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD), PM Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), etc. with the support of National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD), National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) and State Governments.

As per National Cooperative Database, a total of 3,667 new PACS have been registered as on 27.1.2025 across the country, including 148 new PACS in the State of Maharashtra, since the approval of the plan on 15.2.2023. The State-wise details of the same are enclosed at Annexure.

Government of India has approved a project for Computerization of functional PACS with a total financial outlay of ₹2,516 Crore, which entails bringing all the functional PACS onto an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) based common national software, linking them with NABARD through State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs). The National Level Common Software for the project has been developed by NABARD and 50,455 PACS have been onboarded on ERP software as on 27.01.2025. So far, proposals for computerization of 67,930 PACS from 30 States/ UTs have been sanctioned, for which Rs. 741.34 Cr. has been released as GoI share to the States/UTs concerned as on 27.01.2025 and hardware has been delivered to 60,382 PACS.

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Annexure

State-wise details of newly registered PACS as on 27.1.2025 since the approval of the Plan on 15.2.2023 (As per National Cooperative Database):

S. No.	State/UT	Newly registered PACS
1.	Andaman And Nicobar Islands	1
2.	Andhra Pradesh	0
3.	Arunachal Pradesh	12
4.	Assam	59
5.	Bihar	25
6.	Chhattisgarh	0
7.	Goa	12
8.	Gujarat	291
9.	Haryana	2
10.	Himachal Pradesh	57
11.	Jammu And Kashmir	84
12.	Jharkhand	44
13.	Karnataka	128
14.	Ladakh	0
15.	Lakshadweep	0
16.	Madhya Pradesh	16
17.	Maharashtra	148
18.	Manipur	68
19.	Meghalaya	193
20.	Mizoram	25
21.	Nagaland	12
22.	Odisha	1,535
23.	Puducherry	2
24.	Punjab	0
25.	Rajasthan	760
26.	Sikkim	23
27.	Tamil Nadu	21
28.	Telangana	0
29.	Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu	4
30.	Tripura	38
31.	Uttar Pradesh	94
32.	Uttarakhand	0
33.	West Bengal	13
	Total	3,667

 

This was stated by the Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

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RK/VV/ASH/RR/PR/PS

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