COOPERATIVES 2.0

THE NATIONAL COOPERATIVE POLICY, FUNDING SUPPORT AND LEGISLATIVE MEASURES TO TURN COOPERATIVES MORE TRANSPARENT AND PROFESSIONAL CAN BOOST GROWTH IN A BIG WAY

- JOE C. MATHEW

We have 33 supermarkets at the moment. The target is 1,500 in five years.” S.B. Jayaraj, who is gung-ho about his organisation’s plans for Kerala, is not just another retailer. He is the general secretary of the Kerala chapter of Sahakar Bharati — a pan-India body that aims at strengthening the cooperative movement in India, and an affiliate of the RSS, the ideological parent of the ruling BJP. Jayaraj has just got Ernakulam-based Bharath Agro Processing and Marketing Cooperative (BAMCO) registered as a multistate cooperative society. The first supermarket under the new entity has been opened recently. With over two dozen Grameen Samrudhi stores mentored by Sahakar Bharati since 2017 also being brought under the BAMCO umbrella, the society is all set to have its presence felt in the state.

In fact, Sahakar Bharati’s plans for the state are more holistic. “We have almost 25 farmer producer organisations (FPOs) sanctioned, and some are already functional in various districts of Kerala. Each FPO has 350-750 farmers registered as shareholders. The farmers will be harvesting, procuring, value-adding their produce through their FPOs. We expect farmers’ income to double,” says Jayaraj. BAMCO will eventually market the products sourced from Sahakar Bharati-mentored FPOs and cooperatives that will be established not only in Kerala, but in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and even Lakshadweep. In the long run, the organisation wants to mentor cooperative societies that go beyond the agri-rural sector and run hospitals, schools and production units, adds Jayaraj.