Contents
Preface
I. Introduction
II.
Agricultural Credit Co-operative Structure
III.
Co-operative Fanning Structure
IV.
Agricultural Service Co-operatives
V.
Co-operative Marketing Structure
VI.
Co-operative Processing Structure
VII.
Co-operative Storage and Warehousing
VIII.
Other Agricultural Co-operatives
Preface
Co-operatives have played a tremendous role in making Indian agriculture a success story. They help farmers to solve a number of farming problems such as securing precious credit, getting production input, storage of agricultural produce and disposing off the same. This booklet discusses the structure of co-operatives in India in detail.
Dr. K. T. Chandy, Agricultural & Environmental Education
I. Introduction
Co-operative movement has entered into different branches of economic activities. Co-operatives today are found in production, consumption, service, credit, marketing and other spheres of country's life. Since it is the age of specialization, each single co-operative aims at catering to a particular need of its members, but with vast developments in the economic sphere, and because of the question of viability of the co-operative efforts, service or multipurpose co-operatives have also been evolved. Initially, the co-operatives were recognized only in the field of consumer co-operation, but later on they were extended to cover production also, and hence, a two-fold classification was adopted, viz, consumer's co-operation and producers co- operation. At the later stage, it has been categorized as 'agriculture' and 'non agriculture'. Further classifications have been on the basis of functions, but here we discuss the agricultural co-operative structure only.
II. Agricultural Credit Co-operative Structure
The following flow chart will help in locating the agricultural credit co-operatives and its sub-divisions in the whole picture of co-operative credit structure is given as follows.
Agricultural credit societies are the kernel of the cooperative movement in India. They are the very foundation stone of the co-operative credit structure and constitute to be the largest number of co-operative institutions in India. The object of these societies show a good deal of variation. Most of them have however, been organized with a view to provide credit facilities and to inculcate the habit of thrift and economy among their members. Different bodies of agricultural credit co-operatives are described here.
A.
National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
is the apex organization with respect to all matters relating
to policy, planning and operational aspects in the field of
credit for the promotion of agriculture, small scale industries,
cottage and village industries, handicrafts and rural crafts
and other allied economic activities in rural areas. The bank
provides refinance to various banks for agriculture and rural
development.
Functions
The main functions of NABARD are as follows.
1. Provide production and marketing credit to state co-operative
banks, regional rural banks, or to any financial institutions
which are approved by Reserve Bank of India.
2. Carry out the conversion loan for production credit.
3. Rescheduling of loans of artisan, small-scale industries,
etc.
4. Carry out purchase and sales of shares.
5. Provide loans to state governments for share capital contribution.
6. Ensure security of credit.
7. Make available direct loans to financial institutions and
governments.
8. Issue guarantees.
