Status: Not Approved
Kumar said that, on average, around 70 to 80 farmers would be provided fertiliser under the process through each Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS), the grassroots-level, village-based cooperative credit institutions which provide immediate agricultural and non-agricultural credit, fertilisers, seeds, and marketing facilities to rural borrowers.
UP government plans doorstep fertilizer delivery through mobile app Highly placed sources said that the Department of Cooperatives already initiated the exercise by getting the application developed for advance booking of fertiliser and their delivery at farmers’ residences. Commissioner, Cooperatives, Yogesh Kumar said that the idea is to do away with physical queues to make way for electronic queues. This, he said, eased the pressure of farmers lining up at fertiliser shops/centres for long hours. “They may track the status of their order online and get it from the nearest centre or wait for home delivery,” he said, while speaking to TOI on Wednesday. Officials said that the department plans to promote online payment to avoid the hassles of cash management. The digitisation of PACS operations, sources said, marks the UP govt’s fresh attempt to modernise cooperative institutions, increase their accountability, and create traceable fertiliser supply chains. Officials said that replacing physical queues with electronic queues could save farmers’ time during peak sowing seasons, reduce crowd management challenges, and minimise law and order risks during potential fertiliser shortages.
Farmers will have the facility of paying online as well as cash on delivery. Promoting online payments also reduces leakages and informal commissions, besides accounting irregularities. As a matter of fact, the PACS are crucial since they act as grassroots-level rural institutions with existing farmer databases. They have an established trust network in villages and a direct linkage to cooperative supply chains.