The Odisha government has greenlit a Rs 42-crore interest subvention scheme designed to strengthen the distribution of fertilisers through cooperative societies, according to an official statement on Monday.
The strategic rollout was taken on the recommendation of the Standing Finance Committee (SFC), chaired under the leadership of the Cooperation Department’s secretary, it said.
Under the scheme, the state government aims to aggressively scale up the cooperative sector’s footprint in the fertiliser market, propelling its share from the current 25–30 per cent up to 60 per cent, starting this upcoming kharif crop season, officials said.
The policy shift is expected to reduce the black market and prevent the illegal siphoning of agricultural inputs through private retail networks, according to officials.
The scheme has a total outlay of Rs 42 crore for the five-year period from 2026-27 to 2030-31, with an initial allocation of Rs 5 crore for the current financial year, they added.
Around 2,700 grassroots-level agricultural hubs will reap the benefits of the funding, heavily targeting Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) alongside Large-sized Adivasi Multipurpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPCS), officials said.
To back their logistics, each participating society will be granted a customised cash credit ceiling of up to Rs 10 lakh, based on its operational capacity, they said.
