The Govt. of India has set up a national level cooperative society for organic products under the Multi State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002. This was publicised in a press bulletin issued by the Public Information Bureau dated 11th January, 2023.
The establishment of the Committee aims at providing thrust to organic products from cooperative sector by acting as an umbrella organisation for managing various activities related to the organic sector.
- Society Membership
Membership to the committee is open to all primary and national level cooperatives societies. These include primary societies, district, state and national level federations, multi state cooperative societies and Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs). All these cooperatives will have their elected representatives in the Board of the society as per its bye-laws.
- Functions of the Society
The cooperative society for organic products will perform the following activities:
- Managing various activities related to organic sector by providing certified and authentic organic products,
- Unlocking demand and consumption potential of organic products in domestic as well as in global markets,
- Help cooperatives and ultimately their farmer members in getting benefits of high price of organic products through aggregation, branding and marketing on large scale by facilitating testing and certification at affordable cost,
- Provide institutional support for aggregation, certification, testing, procurement, storage, processing, branding, labelling, packaging, logistic facilities, marketing of organic products and arranging financial assistance to the organic farmers through is members cooperatives including Primary Agricultural Credit Societies/ FPOs,
- take up all promotion and development related activities of organic products with the help of various schemes and agencies of the Government,
- Empanel accredited organic testing labs and certification bodies who mee the criteria specified by the society to bring down the cost of testing and certification, and
- facilitate in providing technical guidance, training and capacity building of organic producer and developing and maintaining dedicated market intelligence system for organic produce.
Thus the society will manage entire supply chain of organic products produced by cooperatives and related entities through member cooperatives and also enhance reach and demand of organic products in global market.
