The government intends to establish a nationwide initiative to recruit dairy and fishery cooperative societies as banking correspondents in order to boost financial services in rural areas, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Ministry of Cooperation Secretary Ashish Kumar Bhutani said the scheme would harness the existing network of dairy and fishery cooperatives to operate as "bank mitras" or banking agents by delivering services such as micro-ATMs and lower-interest agricultural loans.

"The pilot has been implemented at the state level in Gujarat. "We intend to roll out nationally shortly," Bhutani said at a PHDCCI-organized cooperation meeting here.

The idea follows a pilot initiative implemented in two regions of Gujarat where members of dairy and fishery cooperatives were able to receive banking services closer home, including doorstep delivery of microloans and facilitating other transactions.

Under the nationwide scheme, these cooperative societies will be employed as banking correspondents of district and state cooperative banks, official sources said.

To facilitate delivery of branchless banking services, the cooperatives would be given micro-ATMs with backing from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the state institution tasked with development of rural India.  Cooperative members will also be granted Kisan Credit Cards, which normally offer farm loans at cheaper interest rates.

Bhutani said the Ministry of Cooperation has initiated 54 initiatives during the last two-and-a-half years since its inception to build and expand India's cooperative sector, including permitting grassroots-level Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) to perform numerous operations.

The government has also established multi-state cooperatives to encourage exports, seed production, and organic goods, allowing cooperatives to tap into international markets, according to the top official.