Kumari, Sneha
Cooperatives and food security: A game- changer for India - Kurukshetra - 73(08), Jun, 2025: p.5-11
Food security is one of the primary concerns for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Food security not only depends on the availability of food grains in market but also on the accessibility of the general public in procuring these articles from the market and weather these are affordable for the consumers. Issues like lack of food grain storage, post-harvest losses, and inefficient food distribution systems pose challenges to food security. The Government of India(GoI) launched the world's Largest Food Grain Storage Programme in the Cooperative Sector in 2023. Outline the innovative approaches of the initiative and evaluating the role of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies(PACS) for grain procurement and efficient storage will help realize the objectives of the initiative. Various challenges do exist but these can be overcome to enhance sustainability through appropriate means in a collective manner. Effective grading, sorting, and handling of agricultural commodities can help ensure achieving food security. Cooperatives have become multi-dimensional and multi-purpose and they should move towards regenerative models of food security, thereby giving a much-needed push to the economy from the bottom by relying on a collective development approach. - Reproduced
food grain, agricultural commodities, food security, Sustainable Development Goals, FAO
Cooperatives and food security: A game- changer for India - Kurukshetra - 73(08), Jun, 2025: p.5-11
Food security is one of the primary concerns for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Food security not only depends on the availability of food grains in market but also on the accessibility of the general public in procuring these articles from the market and weather these are affordable for the consumers. Issues like lack of food grain storage, post-harvest losses, and inefficient food distribution systems pose challenges to food security. The Government of India(GoI) launched the world's Largest Food Grain Storage Programme in the Cooperative Sector in 2023. Outline the innovative approaches of the initiative and evaluating the role of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies(PACS) for grain procurement and efficient storage will help realize the objectives of the initiative. Various challenges do exist but these can be overcome to enhance sustainability through appropriate means in a collective manner. Effective grading, sorting, and handling of agricultural commodities can help ensure achieving food security. Cooperatives have become multi-dimensional and multi-purpose and they should move towards regenerative models of food security, thereby giving a much-needed push to the economy from the bottom by relying on a collective development approach. - Reproduced
food grain, agricultural commodities, food security, Sustainable Development Goals, FAO