Agricultural Cooperatives

India is an agricultural country where 60% of the population hails from farming. This industry contributes the majority to the Indian economy. States like Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Assam, and so on are the primary areas where the farming and agricultural industry has flourished since independence. Before independence, the agrarian laws were in haywire, partly due to the princely states fighting over territories during British rule. Post-1947, India introduced many new laws and reforms to protect the interests of farmers and give them more facilities and advantages so that they could prosper. One such reform which changed the Indian farming industry is the Agricultural Cooperatives. 

Cooperative Farming- a new reform for helping Indian farmers 

When the majority members of a family own land and farming is the only source of their livelihood, many conflicts can arise, especially in terms of territory, income, and growth. Besides, since all the members farm on the same plot, it’s hard to prosper and take their agricultural businesses to a new, improved level. This became a huge concern post the independence because India was quite vulnerable at that time. The newly formed government focused on restoring the economy and social norms. 

That’s why they adopted the concept of Agriculture Cooperatives. It defines a model where farmers grow their crops, harvest them, and perform other related works on the same plot. The profits are divided between all the owners while the labourers are paid according to the number of hours they have worked for. This model has allowed the farming organisations to scale the agricultural works and offer the best prices to the farmers. 

In other words, the cooperative farming system symbolises: 

1. Each farmer who is also a member will own a part of the plot individually. 
2. Farming will be carried on in a collaborative manner where all the members will work on the same land but on their individual plots. 
3. The wages are given to the members based on the total number of working days.
4. All the profits will be distributed amongst the members based on the ownership ratio on the total land. 

Features of the Indian cooperative farming model 

• Right of ownership 

With the cooperative farming system, every farmer turned member will have a right to ownership of a particular portion of the land. For example, if a specific plot of 10 acres is under the cooperative farming model and there are five members, each member will have 2 acres under his name. For that 2 acres, he will exercise all the rights till the plot is transferred to someone else or the privileges are revoked. 

• Voluntary member contribution 

All the members have the right to offer voluntary contributions for farming on the land. If someone is not eager to continue farming, he can give up the land to someone else or buy it out in return for money. Here, no one can force any farmer to participate in cooperative farming. 

• Scalable farming model

This is a scalable farming model as the shares of plots for each member can be increased or decreased on the go, based on the requirements. Therefore, the revenues earned will be at par with the expectations, and everyone will have a certain percentage of profits. Besides, if the cooperative society acquires more land, then new members can also be initiated. 

• Proportionate contributions and rewards

Here, the system of rewards (revenues and profits) is completely based on contributions. For example, if a member has 30% ownership while the other person has 40% ownership, then the yield distributed will be higher for the latter member. Similarly, if one member works for five days a week while another person works for six days, then the wages for the second member will be higher. 

Variants of Indian Cooperative Farming 

Now that you know what cooperative farming is, let’s have a look at the four significant variations of cooperative society and how they perform. 

1. The cooperative joint farming society cooperatively performs all operations, starting from ploughing the field to selling the harvested crops. 
2. All the involved members in the cooperative better farming society will operate independently on their respective portions of the land. However, all the additional work, like gathering the seeds and fertilisers and storing the harvested crops, will be done jointly.
3. In the cooperative tenant farming society, the organisation will buy or rent land from private or government-owned companies and then lease out the same to different society members. 
4. The cooperative collective farming society provides permanent ownership of the land sections. Here, a member cannot withdraw from society by selling it. Instead, the right will get transferred to another member. 

Conclusion 

With time, the concept of Agricultural Cooperatives has become immensely popular. It gives proper rights and rewards to the farmers and also helps them to grow the crops and gain more revenues with help from others. This model has introduced working cooperatively with each other and making the best out of the land. Therefore, no member has to go through the hassles of maintaining the entire land or suffer from a financial crisis during times of poor harvest. These are some of the reasons why so many reforms and acts have been passed in India for developing the concept of farming jointly.