India’s co-ops minister Amit Shah has officially opened a new sulphuric acid plant built by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (Iffco) in Paradip, Odisha – and announced a list of other co-operative efforts.
The inauguration took place during the minister’s visit to the state on 6 March , forming part of a wider programme focused on strengthening Odisha’s co-operative sector.
Sulphuric acid is critical to fertiliser production. It is used to process phosphate rock into phosphoric acid, which plants can easily absorb, and to manufactures superphosphate fertilisers and ammonium sulphate, which is useful in soils that are deficient in sulphur.
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Addressing the event, Shah said the initiatives align with prime minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi’ – referring to the Indian government’s scheme aimed at strengthening the co-operative movement for farmers and rural development.
These other initiatives include:
- the publication of Odisha’s State Co-operative Policy
- the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a new school under Tribhuvan Cooperative University;
- An MoU for the revival of the Badamba Cooperative Sugar Mill
- The opening of 1567 Common Service Centres run by Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and Large Area Multi-Purpose Societies (LAMPS)
- The virtual inauguration of ‘need-based’ infrastructure for 141 PACS
An AI-powered digital learning platform called ‘Savidya’ was also launched in order to support co-operative education and training. This marks a wider adoption of AI in India’s rural co-operative economy and follows the launch of Sarlaban, an AI-powered ‘digital assistant’ designed for rural farmer-owners within the Amul dairy co-operative in Gujarat. This is a chat-based interface which offers personalised, “cattle-specific” support across scores of local dialects.
According to officials, a total of 69 projects worth ₹1,159.03 crore (approximately US$139.9m,£105.7m) were inaugurated during the programme. Foundation stones were also laid for 130 additional projects valued at ₹2,116.06 crore (around $255.1m, £190.8m).
