Punjab’s cooperative network, built before the Green Revolution, remains deeply embedded in the state’s rural economy, with nearly 3,500 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) across more than 12,000 villages serving lakhs of farmer members. However, financial stress, weak governance, delayed elections, inadequate audits and limited diversification have weakened several cooperative institutions, creating an urgent need for structural reform.
The dairy sector is identified as a major area for revival. Milkfed’s Verka collects lakhs of litres of milk from rural households, including supplies from small and marginal farmers and women, while the article calls for stronger milk procurement, processing, branding and cold-chain infrastructure to help the cooperative compete with private dairy companies.
The proposed roadmap includes computerising PACS, integrating them with district cooperative banks and NABARD, improving transparency and audits, and diversifying their operations beyond crop loans. PACS could potentially operate services ranging from agricultural inputs and soil testing to custom-hiring centres, storage facilities and other rural services under the Centre’s broader “Sahkar Se Samriddhi” framework.
For dairy, the article highlights the opportunity created by the national push towards a second White Revolution, with stronger milk collection, quality testing, greater participation of women and development of higher-value products such as cheese, yoghurt and packaged protein foods. Connecting cooperatives with FPOs, food-processing units, e-NAM and export markets could help farmers move beyond selling raw agricultural commodities towards processing, branding and value creation.
The broader message is that Punjab does not need to abandon its cooperative model but modernise and professionalise it through digital governance, financial discipline, transparent elections, professional management and diversified business models. For Punjab’s dairy sector, a stronger cooperative ecosystem could improve farmer incomes while strengthening procurement, processing, product development and market access.
Source: Dairynews7x7 08 Sep, 2026 Read full story here
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