All 182 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) in the district would be doing business in excess of Rs. 1 crore within the current financial year, said S. Gurumoorthy, Joint Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Madurai region.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday to mark the 58th All India Cooperative Week, being observed all over the country between November 14 and 20, he said that a Business Development Plan was being executed towards this objective. In Madurai district, 204 cooperative societies had been running 1,276 fair price shops, all of which had been provided with electronic weighing measures.
Every month they sold, among others, 11,000 tonnes of rice, 1,650 tonnes of sugar, 2,900 tonnes of kerosene, 370 tonnes of wheat and 770 kilo litres of palm oil to 8,18,595 family card holders in the district.
In the current fiscal, PACS in the district had been giving crop loans with a target of Rs. 57.50 crore, of which Rs. 33.57 crore had been disbursed to 8,142 farmers. A sum of Rs. 1.59 crore was disbursed as subsidy to 5,703 farmers who had repaid on time loans to the tune of Rs. 25.91 crore given in 2010-11. Cooperative societies had also given Rs. 401 crore in jewel loans and had a total deposit in excess of Rs. 803 crore.
Around 76 tonnes of seeds and 11,839 tonnes of chemical fertilizers had been sold to farmers. During 2010-11, cooperative societies procured a total of 34,000 tonnes of paddy, he said.
Mr. Gurumoorthy assured that all fair price shops would have adequate stocks of all commodities, including fertilizers. Also, he urged farmers to insist on bills while buying fertilizer. On recovery rates, he said that it was 70 to 75 per cent for crop loans.
To mark the Cooperative Week, Mr. Gurumoorthy said that blood donation camps, free veterinary camp for milch cattle, medical camp and a seminar on how cooperative societies help women and children were held.
