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Home2022July (Page 9)
Finance

The initiative will serve the purpose of financial inclusion and strengthening service delivery to farmers

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved computerisation of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) with the objective of increasing their efficiency and bringing transparency and accountability in their operations. This project proposes computerisation of about 63,000 functional PACS over a period of five years with a total budget outlay of Rs 2516 crore and the government’s share of Rs 1528 crore.

PACS constitute the lowest tier of the three-tier Short-term cooperative credit (STCC) in the country comprising of around 13 crore farmers as its members, which is crucial for the development of the rural economy. PACS account for 41 per cent (3.01 crore farmers) of the KCC loans given by all entities in the country and 95 per cent of these KCC loans (2.95 crore farmers) through PACS are given to the small and marginal farmers.

Computerisation of PACS, besides serving the purpose of financial inclusion and strengthening service delivery to farmers, will also will become a nodal service delivery point for various services and provision of inputs like fertilisers, seeds etc. The project will help in improving the outreach of the PACS as outlets for banking activities as well as non-banking activities apart from improving digitalisation in rural areas.

The initiative will serve the purpose of

Bee keeping

The event emphasised on the need to take strong measures to increase the export and production of honey and generating employment for the beekeepers

In a bid to highlight the importance of beekeeping as part of the Integrated Farming System in the country, India Honey Alliance (IHA) in collaboration with the National Bee Board, hosted a webinar – ‘Hive to Home 4.0 – The Busy Bee’. It witnessed participation of experts from across the honey value chain and emphasised on the holistic development of the beekeeping sector and creating a more enabling environment for the bees and beekeepers. 

The session was moderated by Somit Mukherjee, Senior VP, Supply Chain-Dabur and the opening remarks were given by Namrata Khanna, Director, India Honey Alliance.

In his keynote address, Dr Naveen Patle, ED-National Bee Board (NBB) said that the country has achieved 21 per cent growth in export this year as compared to last year. He also stressed on the fact that while the country has more than 48 lakhs bee colonies, only 19 lakhs colonies are registered in the Madhu Kranti Portal. He urged that beekeepers should register themselves for better traceability and holistic growth of the beekeeping ecosystem. Dr Patle informed that the NBB has recently set up 8 mini labs in Gujarat and the organisation is in the process of creating many more such regional testing labs and mini-testing labs across the country.

The other experts pointed out that it is a very fragmented and unorganised sector and that the government along with the entire honey ecosystem should collaborate to take strong measures in increasing the export and production of honey, creating sustainable income and employment for the beekeepers. 

The event emphasised on the need to