Jaipur, July 7 -- The Centre on Monday announced 160 warehousing projects for the state and launched the "Sahkar Van" initiative in Jaipur at an event to mark the fifth Foundation Day of the Ministry of Cooperation in New Delhi. Addressing the event at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, Union home and cooperation minister Amit Shah said the cooperative sector has emerged as a key driver of rural prosperity since the ministry was created in 2021. Shah said the ministry has transformed the cooperative ecosystem by promoting transparency, digitisation and technology-driven governance. Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) have been modernised through the e-PACS initiative, making operations, auditing and digital payments more efficient and transparent. He urged farmers to increasingly adopt organic farming, saying that excessive dependence on chemical fertilisers adversely affected soil fertility. The Centre also announced a series of projects to strengthen agricultural storage infrastructure in the state. These include laying of the foundation stone for 10 new grain storage warehouses, inauguration of 50 completed warehouses and transfer of 100 warehouses to the Rajasthan State Warehousing Corporation. The projects are expected to improve scientific storage capacity and reduce post-harvest losses, said officials. Another major announcement was the e-foundation stone laying of "Sahkar Van" at Sumel village in Jaipur district. The 64-acre green initiative will be developed using both the Miyawaki and conventional plantation methods with indigenous tree species such as khejri, rohida and neem. Chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma said Rajasthan's cooperative movement has expanded rapidly and now covered almost every village in the state. Rajasthan has over 42,000 cooperative societies with over 13.5 million members, while nearly 890,000 new members joined cooperative institutions under a statewide membership campaign, he said, adding that the state government has also set a target to set up cooperative societies in every gram panchayat Highlighting the dairy sector, Sharma said Rajasthan's cooperative dairy model has become a major source of livelihood for lakhs of livestock-rearing families. He said dairy unions that were once running in losses have turned profitable, while the Rajasthan Cooperative Dairy Federation (RCDF) has achieved a record turnover of Rs.10,000 crore, the highest in its 47-year history. According to the chief minister, dairy cooperatives in Rajasthan now have 940,000 milk producers as members, including over 420,000 women, making the sector an important vehicle for women's economic empowerment. Daily milk procurement in the state has increased from 3.8 million litres to 4.5 million litres, while the number of new members joining dairy cooperatives has risen by nearly 70%. Sharma also highlighted Rajasthan's progress in digitising cooperative institutions. He said 5,646 PACS have already been converted into e-PACS and have collectively recorded over 100 million online transactions, accounting for nearly one-third of all e-PACS transactions in the country and the highest among all states. The chief minister said Rajasthan has also established 5,279 new multipurpose cooperative societies under the Centre's initiative to create a cooperative society in every panchayat. Of these, 1,977 are MPACS, giving Rajasthan the highest number in the country. The state also ranks first in enrolment with the Bharatiya Beej Sahakari Samiti Ltd....