The Government of India has approved a plan to establish two lakh new multipurpose Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) / dairy / fishery primary cooperative societies for covering all the remaining Panchayats/ villages in the country, with the support of State Governments, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development   (NABARD),   National   Dairy   Development Board (NDDB) and National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) through convergence of various existing schemes of Government of India and by leveraging the ‘whole-of-Government’ approach in the next five years. As per reports given by States/UTs, there are 18,981 fishery cooperatives operating throughout the country.

The cooperative sector has huge potential in developing the fishery business in India and abroad as it helps in focusing on the community management, generating employment, increase bargain power and income of the fish farmers, thus, improving socio-economic status of fish farmers.

The Government of India has approved setting up of three national level Multi-State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) one each for Organic, Seeds and Exports registered under MSCS Act, 2002 i.e. National Co-operative Export Society, National Co-operative Society for Organic Products and National Level Multi-State Seed Co-operative Society. These cooperative societies are expected to support the fisheries in the areas of supply of seed and quality fish marketing with focus on integrated project for development of Inland fisheries, fisher women cooperatives, branding & trade promotion and capacity building. In addition, Integration of Cooperatives data with Gati Shakti Portal to utilise the infrastructure being developed by the Centre and State.

The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying under “Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)” is financially supporting fisheries cooperatives, fisheries federations and Fish Farmer Producer Organizations (FFPOs) as one of the intended beneficiaries under the scheme.

This information was given by Shri Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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SS/RKM

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