To overcome the challenges of small holdings, the Minister asked the cooperative banks to think about how to run such small farms in a cooperative spirit.
India After America, 494 million acres of agricultural land is the highest. He said that if the entire agricultural land is irrigated, then India can feed the whole world.
Addressing a national conference, Shah said, “If we look back and look at the journey of the last 90 years of long-term financing through cooperatives and how it has come down, if you look at the data, It hasn’t grown.”
He said that there are many hurdles in long term financing and the time has come to remove them with a cooperative spirit.
He also said that cooperative banks should not work as a stand-alone bank, but should focus on other cooperative activities such as setting up agricultural infrastructure such as irrigation.