Chandigarh: Punjab’s Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa welcomed the Centre’s decision to create a separate cooperation ministry from agriculture, but called it delayed.
The cabinet minister expressed the hope that the real concerns of farmers and other sections of rural society will be taken into account and that the cooperative movement at the local level will be further strengthened. He also called on the central government to sincerely prioritize the problems faced by cooperatives in order to transform the fate of the besieged farmers, especially the small and marginalized, who were going through an acute agrarian crisis due to reduced profit margins due to minimum unpaid support. prices (PSM) coupled with their fragile economic situation due to the heavy debt burden.
Empowering the cooperative movement can also be used to reduce social tensions resulting from the disparity between rich and poor and also bridge the rural-urban divide, he added. Recalling the central role of Punjab farmers in the green revolution of the mid-1960s and the white revolution that followed, Randhawa said that cooperatives played a big role. “Here is a crucial role of the newly established Ministry of Cooperation to help farmers write another cooperative success story by strengthening cooperative societies to provide high quality seeds, fertilizers, agricultural machinery, pesticides in addition to advance crops in the short term. loans and financial assistance to farmers for related agricultural activities such as dairy, beekeeping, poultry, fishing and pigsty, ”he said. The minister also called on the Union Ministry to focus on improving the marketing and added value of agricultural products in order to increase the incomes of small farmers.