The marketing efficiency of merged agricultural cooperatives and the direction of the reorganization of sales and farm management guidance activities

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the marketing efficiency of merged agricultural cooperatives and clarify the problems and directions in the reorganization of sales and farm management guidance activities. First, I analyze the marketing efficiency of merged agricultural cooperatives in Kumamoto prefecture by using the DEA method. The results were that some merged agricultural cooperatives gradually increased their marketing efficiency, while other merged agricultural cooperatives did not. 2nd, the results of a comparative analysis between Kikuchi and Kamoto agricultural cooperatives lead to the conclusions that; 1) the sales and farm management guidance activities of the Kamoto agricultural cooperative were very simple and efficient, and 2) efficient simple organizations and inefficient complicated organizations co-existed in the activities of the Kikuchi agricultural cooperative. Especially, the organization of fruits and vegetables faced complicated conditions. In addition, if an organization provided strong incentives to farmers, the organization became efficient and simple, but if an organization did not provide strong incentives to farmers, the organization could not change and retained an inefficient and complicated structure. 3rd, the results of the analysis lead to the conclusion that the direction of reorganization gradually evolves from the present, complicated organizational structure into an efficient, simple structure. However, the possibility of change depends on; (1) the organizations providing stronger incentives to farmers in comparison to current practice, and (2) the organizations make the purpose of reorganization simple. This means that the purpose of a reorganization should not be to keep the old custom of a linkage between cooperatives and rural communities, but should be to make a basic support organization for the efficient production and delivery of agricultural products in the merged area