Cooperative movement in India

India has seen a huge growth in cooperative societies, mainly in the farming sector, since 1947 when the country gained independence from Britain.

Agriculture based cooperatives

Sugarcane weighing at a Cooperative Sugar mill in Maharashtra, India.

The country has networks of cooperatives at the local, regional, state and national levels that assist in agricultural marketing. The commodities that are mostly handled are food grains, jute, cotton, sugar, milk, fruit and nuts.[1] Support by the state government led to more than 25,000 cooperatives being set up by 1990s in Maharashtra.[2]

Sugar industry

Most of the sugar production in India takes place at mills owned by local cooperative societies. The members of the society include all farmers, small and large, supplying sugarcane to the mill.[3] Over the last fifty years, the local sugar mills have played a crucial part in encouraging political participation and as a stepping stone for aspiring politicians.[4] This is particularly true in the state of Maharashtra where a large number of politicians belonging to the Congress party or NCP had ties to sugar cooperatives from their local area and has created a symbiotic relationship between the sugar factories and local politics.[5]. However, the policy of "profits for the company but losses to be borne by the government", has made a number of these operations inefficient.[6][7]

Marketing

As with sugar, cooperatives play a significant part in the overall marketing of fruit and vegetables in India. Since the 1980s, the amount of produce handled by Cooperative societies has increased exponentially. Common fruit and vegetables marketed by the societies include bananas, mangoes, grapes, onions and many others.[8]

Dairy industry

Saraswani milk producing co-operative society milk collection center in Gujarat. Collected milk is sent to Amul for further processing and distribution.

Dairy farming based on the Amul Pattern, with a single marketing cooperative, is India's largest self-sustaining industry and its largest rural employment provider. Successful implementation of the Amul model has made India the world's largest milk producer.[9] Here small, marginal farmers with a couple or so heads of milch cattle queue up twice daily to pour milk from their small containers into the village union collection points. The milk after processing at the district unions is then marketed by the state cooperative federation nationally under the Amul brand name, India's largest food brand. With the Anand pattern three-fourth of the price paid by the mainly urban consumers goes into the hands of millions of small dairy farmers, who are the owners of the brand and the cooperative. The cooperative hires professionals for their expertise and skills and uses hi-tech research labs and modern processing plants & transport cold-chains, to ensure quality of their produce and value-add to the milk.[10]

Banking and rural credit

Cooperatives also play a great part in banking. Cooperative banks in India serve both the rural and urban societies. Just like the sugar companies, these institutions serve as the power base for local politicians.[11]

Housing societies

These are widely known as Cooperative Housing Societies. theses are established to help people with limited income to construct houses at reasonable costs.

See also

References

  1. ^ Vadivelu, A. and Kiran, B.R., 2013. Problems and prospects of agricultural marketing in India: An overview. International journal of agricultural and food science, 3(3), pp.108-118.[1]
  2. ^ Dahiwale, S. M. (February 11, 1995). "Consolidation of Maratha Dominance in Maharashtra". Economic and Political Weekly. 30 (6): 340–342. JSTOR 4402382.
  3. ^ "National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Limited". Coopsugar.org. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  4. ^ Patil, Anil (9 July 2007). "Sugar cooperatives on death bed in Maharashtra". Rediff India. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  5. ^ Baviskar, edited by B.S.; Mathew, George (2008). Inclusion and exclusion in local governance : field studies from rural India. London: SAGE. p. 319. ISBN 9788178298603.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  6. ^ http://www.helsinki.fi/iehc2006/papers2/Das72.pdf
  7. ^ Dahiwale, S. M. (February 11, 1995). "Consolidation of Maratha Dominance in Maharashtra". Economic and Political Weekly. 30 (6): 340–342. JSTOR 4402382.
  8. ^ K. V. Subrahmanyam; T. M. Gajanana (2000). Cooperative Marketing of Fruits and Vegetables in India. Concept Publishing Company. pp. 45–60. ISBN 978-81-7022-820-2.
  9. ^ Scholten, Bruce A. (2010). India's white revolution Operation Flood, food aid and development. London: Tauris Academic Studies. p. 10. ISBN 9781441676580.
  10. ^ Damodaran, H., 2008. Patidars and Marathas. In India’s New Capitalists (pp. 216-258). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
  11. ^ Dahiwale, S. M. (February 11, 1995). "Consolidation of Maratha Dominance in Maharashtra". Economic and Political Weekly. 30 (6): 340–342. JSTOR 4402382.

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