New Scheme To Digitise PACs

Subject – Agriculture

Context – Centre holds consultations with States and UTs on new scheme to digitise PACs

Concept –

The Centre held a virtual consultation with 32 States and Union Territories on a new central scheme to modernise and digitalise over 97,000 primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACs) spread across the country.
PACs, commonly known as agri-cooperative credit societies, are village-level lending institutions extending short and medium-term loans.
There are about 97,961 PACs across the country, out of which over 65,000 are viable.

What are Primary Agricultural Credit Societies?

PACS are the ground-level cooperative credit institutions that provide short-term and medium-term agricultural loans to the farmers for the various agricultural and farming activities.
It works at the grassroots gram Panchayat and village level.

Features

The Primary Agricultural Credit Societies are the association of persons, unlike in the case of the Joint Stock Companies, where there is just accumulation of capital.
Primary Agricultural Credit Societies confers equal rights to all its members without considering their holding of share and their social standing.

PACS are generally providing the following facilities to the members: