Agricultural Cooperatives can improve livelihood security of rural poor
2015
Hegde, Narayan G.
Cooperatives working at the village level can mobilise their members and help them to organize their business. However, cooperatives need additional support to monitor the working and ensure equality among all the members. There is also a need to look at the rules and regulations of the cooperative to facilitate flexibility to suit the local requirements and promote various activities required for developing an efficient value chain. Cooperatives need to be connected with external agencies for bringing new technologies and to link with the market. This can be done by involving reputed and committed civil society organisations (NGOs) as facilitators or associates. They can also help small farmers to build their capabilities through regular mentoring. The NGOs can coordinate the activities of the value chain partners to play their role optimally. Such association of cooperatives with other organisations such as producer companies, input suppliers and retailers for marking their produce, will be able to take care of the pitfalls of the earlier cooperative movement and help the country to ensure food security. As India is one of the largely populated countries, dependent on agriculture for livelihood security and hosting over 25% of the world’s poor, any successful agricultural development activity in India will be a role model for other developing countries for wider replication. A successful cooperative movement in India will ensure food security in India and also help to feed the world.
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