NEW DELHI: The Central government is planning to computerise the agricultural cooperative sector in a bid to bring transparency and efficiency. It is also set to release a national database of 8 lakh cooperative societies in the country.
The Ministry of Cooperation, in collaboration with the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), will launch the project for computerisation of Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) and the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCSs) of all states and Union territories on January 30.
According to several experts, digitalisation of the cooperative sector has been long due and it will modernise and revive the ailing sector.
“Precise data related to cooperative loan disbursements would help the managements make well-informed decisions and enable the governments to make policies related to it,” said Dr N Satyanarayan, former head of the National Cooperative Union of India, an apex organisation representing the entire cooperative movement in the country.
The project aims at computerising 1,851 ARDBs in 13 states and UTs, and link them with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) through a common software. It will standardise business procedures through Common Accounting System and Management Information System.
Cooperative societies and banks disburse loans for different purposes like crops, seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, agriculture equipment, land development, irrigation purposes and others.
“Digitalisation will help measure the productivity of loans, identify borrowing trends, whether bigger or smaller farmers borrow and their productivity,” said Satyanarayan. However, he said that “feeding precise data into the system will be a major challenge before this project.”
In addition, the ministry has decided to make the functioning of RCS offices paperless.
Amit Shah, Union Minister of Cooperation, said in a statement that digitization is a major step towards realizing PM Modi’s vision of “Sahkar Se Samriddhi”.
Experts welcome plan
According to several experts, digitalisation of the cooperative sector has been long due and it will modernise and revive the ailing sector. “Precise data related to cooperative loan disbursements would help the managements make well-informed decisions and enable the governments to make policies related to it,” said Dr N Satyanarayan, former head of National Cooperative Union of India.