Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC)

The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) is the Indian government department responsible for agricultural development programmes. Agriculture is the principal source of livelihood for more than 58 per cent of the population of the country. It provides the bulk of wage goods required by non-agriculture sectors and most of the raw materials for the industrial sector, cotton for the textile industry among them.

Production and Price Support

The combined efforts of the Central Government, state governments and the farming community succeeded in achieving record production of 244.78 million tons of food grains during 2010-11. This record production was achieved through effective transfer of the latest crop production technologies to farmers under various crop development schemes being implemented by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, backed by remunerative prices for various crops through enhanced minimum support prices.

How the Department Is Organised

The DAC is organized into 27 divisions and has five attached offices and twenty-two subordinate offices spread across the country for coordination with state level agencies and implementation of Central Sector Schemes in their respective fields. Two public sector undertakings, nine autonomous bodies, ten national level cooperative organizations and one authority function under the administrative control of the Department. It is through this structure of divisions, attached and subordinate offices that national agricultural policy, including the crop development schemes and the price support framework, reaches the farming districts where cotton and other crops are grown.

The DAC and Cotton

For the clothing industry, the Department matters through the price chain that supports cotton growing. Minimum support prices for major agricultural commodities, cotton included, are announced by the Government of India each year after taking into account the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, and the minimum support price data by year is provided by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics of this Department. When kapas prices fall to the support level, the Cotton Corporation of India steps into the market yards to buy.

Cotton Resources for India

The cotton chain behind the textile industry is covered across five connected pages: cotton in India gathers the resources, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) carries out price support operations in the market yards, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) recommends the prices, the minimum support price (MSP) itself is explained on its own page, and the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) administers the agricultural programmes behind them.