Imagine a future where every Indian village isn’t just an agricultural base, but a living, breathing factory of green energy — where cow dung becomes currency, where climate action is as common as sowing seeds, and where our farmers are not just cultivators, but guardians of the Earth. With the visionary announcement by Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah to institutionalise three new Multistate Cooperative Societies for cow dung management, carbon credit valuation and compressed biogas (CBG) production within the cooperative framework, India has moved beyond mere climate rhetoric. We are entering an era of grassroots-led green revolution, and this time, it is not about food alone, it is about energy, ecology, and equity.
This bold shift isn’t just administrative, it is civilisational. It marks a new model for climate governance rooted in the soil of Bharat, powered by its villages, and held together by the time-tested values of Sahuarita (cooperation). For decades, the climate debate was dominated by distant capitals, high-level negotiations, and top-down frameworks. But India has flipped the script. Through the Cooperative Economic Framework, we are building a decentralised climate economy from the ground up, starting from Primary Agricultural Co-op Societies (PACS) and scaling to national-level apex cooperative institutions. This isn’t just a new economic model, it is a new democratic environmentalism, where the farmer becomes the financier of a greener future, and the village becomes the vanguard of net-zero ambition.
Every PACS has a potential climate command centre. These grassroots institutions, long associated, are now being repositioned as gateways to carbon markets and bio-energy hubs.
Imagine decentralised biogas sprouting in every block, feeding clean energy into the rural economy, generating carbon credits that can be monetised globally, and creating a new stream of income for farmers, especially in rain-fed, tribal, and hilly regions. From the cow shed to the carbon exchange, the entire value chain can now be organised, monitored, and scaled through the cooperative economic framework.
Integral to this transformation is the restructuring of rural resource cycles, especially around fodder management, water governance, and dead cattle economics. Millions of farmers struggle due to erratic fodder availability and mismanaged water resources, which in turn affect livestock productivity and rural resilience. Simultaneously, dead cattle markets, often a source of environmental decay and social tension, remain underutilised economic zones. By creating a multistate cooperative dedicated to integrated livestock resource management, India can formalise and monetise these neglected rural streams. Fodder banks, decentralised water recharge systems, and organised carcass processing units can provide dignified employment, biofertilizers, organic leather, and feedstock for CBG plants. Such a cooperative would not only uplift rural livelihoods but create a closed-loop bio-economy — fueling agriculture, improving nutrition, restoring ecology, and generating revenue across multiple layers of rural society. It is not merely a reform — it is a rural renaissance waiting to be unlocked.
And the beauty of this approach lies in its inclusivity. The PACS-to-Apex structure ensures that no region is left behind — not the snowbound villages of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, not the fragile communities of the Northeast, and certainly not the border settlements of Ladakh or Arunachal. In these places, traditional economic activities are constrained by geography, but the bioeconomy of cow dung and carbon offers a rare opportunity — one that aligns with the region’s cultural values, ecological needs, and national priorities. When farmers in these areas gain the ability to generate income from climate stewardship, they are not just contributing to GDP — they are also strengthening national security. A prosperous border village is a stable border village. When livelihoods are secure, migration is reduced, local pride is restored, and external threats are diminished. The World Cooperation Economic Framework offers the architecture to take this model to scale. It ensures that financing, training, policy guidance, and market access do not remain siloed. It connects the micro to the macro. It allows the smallest PACS in a tribal hamlet to link with global climate finance and ESG funds. It transforms cow dung — a symbol of rural India’s ignored potential — into a goldmine for clean energy, carbon credits, organic farming, and rural employment. Through this, India isn’t just creating a circular economy — it is building a circular civilisation.
This is more than a Government scheme — it is a spiritual call to action. A call to revive our ancient ethos of living in harmony with nature now rearmed with modern science, blockchain traceability, and global carbon accounting. It is a call to stand tall on the world stage — not as climate victims begging for compensation, but as climate victors offering solutions. This is our surgical strike — not through bullets, but through biogas, not with missiles, but with methane management, not by harming — but by healing the Earth through cooperation.
We are witnessing a new economic independence movement — this time against carbon dependency and global climate injustice. As the world watches, India rises. And it rises not from the skyscrapers, but from its soil, its villages, and its unyielding cooperative spirit.From Sahkarita se Samriddhi to Sahkarita se Sanrakshan, the cooperative model is no longer just about managing credit — it is now India’s frontline defence in the fight for global climate equity and national unity.
Let the world take note “When Bharat’s villages rise, the Earth heals — and the Nation stands stronger”. Let us remember that this journey is not just economic or environmental; it is deeply spiritual. This is the Vedic economics meeting of 21st-century governance. This is Yajna — a collective
sacrifice and contribution, where every farmer, every cow, every drop of water, and every seed of cooperation becomes part of a sacred offering to protect the Earth and uplift the Nation.
Let the world understand this clearly, India’s climate action is not born of compulsion, but of conviction rooted in consciousness. And as Bharat’s villages rise once again in the light of Sahkarita, the prayers of our ancestor’s echo in unison,May all be happy, may all be healthy, may all see auspiciousness, and may none suffer.” This is the dharma of cooperation. This is the soul of India rising.
(The writer is the Secretary General, Confederation of NGOs of Rural India. Views expressed are personal)
