Indian Cooperatives, Digital Tools Revolutionising Farmers’ Incomes: World Bank Chief Ajay Banga

World Bank President Ajay Banga praised India’s producer cooperatives and digital innovations for transforming smallholder agriculture during his speech at the AgriConnect event at the World Bank’s 2025 annual meeting.

Highlighting the role they play in increasing farmers’ income and building resilience, he pointed to India’s scalable model as a global example.

Ajay Banga’s speech at the World Bank’s annual meeting comes at a time when tensions have risen between India and the United States over agricultural subsidies and agribusiness focused on market access.

Banga emphasized the important role of producer cooperatives in connecting India’s small farmers to resources and markets. Reflecting on his early career he said, “I saw this personally in my first job when I was a youth management trainee in India working with Nestlé. I saw this work with dairy farmers in Punjab.”

He also cited the Amul Cooperative, saying, “I have seen it in India with the Amul Cooperative, which transformed India from one of the most milk-deficient countries in the world to the number one producer of milk in the world.”

These cooperatives, supported by government policies, link farmers to suppliers, insurers and buyers, ensuring access to fertilizers, credit and predictable markets.

This structure helps smallholders shift from subsistence farming to sustainable businesses, thereby increasing their income potential.

Banga underlined that resilience is a fundamental element of India’s agricultural approach. “Flexibility is built in at the beginning. It’s not added later,” he said.

He highlighted practices like heat-tolerant seeds, soil-matched fertilizers, rejuvenation techniques and efficient irrigation, which protect farmers from climate challenges.

Strong insurance and financing systems ensure that “a bad season doesn’t make a bad year, doesn’t make a bad life,” he added.

These efforts are in line with India’s agricultural policies, which prioritize climate resilience and financial security for smallholder farmers, enabling them to thrive despite environmental uncertainties.

Digital tools are at the center of this transformation, serving as the backbone of India’s agricultural ecosystem.

“Digital is the glue that holds the system together,” Banga said. He explained how AI-powered tools and basic mobile phones help farmers diagnose crop diseases, choose fertilizers, receive weather alerts and process secure payments.

This digital framework creates a “virtuous loop”, as Banga explained: “That data trail then becomes a credit history. Better underwriting leads to lower costs of capital, lower costs, and more lenders are attracted.”

By integrating cooperatives with digital platforms, farmers get better market access and financial opportunities, thereby increasing their income.

Banga shared observations from a recent trip to Uttar Pradesh, where he witnessed the success of the model. “A few months ago, I was in Uttar Pradesh in India. I saw it all coming together. The foundation, the cooperatives, the resilience and most importantly, the glue that held it together, the digital system. And it delivered,” he said.

He described it as a “proof of concept” that is both effective and scalable, urging its replication: “This is the ecosystem we want to replicate wherever possible. This is the ecosystem we want to shamelessly steal.”

Also read: FIIs’ Diwali homecoming: Foreign investors finally return to D-Street

Banga stressed the need for coordination between government, businesses and development partners to sustain this model.

“But this only succeeds when government, business and development partners move in the same direction,” he said.

India’s cooperative-driven and digitally advanced agriculture system, supported by national policies, provides a framework for the upliftment of millions of small farmers while ensuring food security and economic growth.