FERTILE GROUNDS

WHY DO COOPERATIVES
SURVIVE IN SURAT

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 COOPERATIVES COVERED

Dairy, Cotton Ginning and Pressing Society,

Multipurpose Cooperatives, District Cooperative
Bank, Cooperative Spinning Mills, Sugar
Factories (4)
Attended Annual General Body Meetings (3)
Met prominent Cooperative Leaders
Discussed – 40 farmers
– 20 employees
Long Session – M.D.
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 Failures in Kheda and Baroda
Districts, Surat
a) Almost every serious effort to form a
cooperative has succeeded.

b) Most cooperatives were in healthy condition.

c) The performance of many cooperatives

seems to have little to do with the design
concept.
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 SURAT SPINNING COOPERATIVE
(i) what it is at present fundamentally different from what it
was envisaged to be
(ii) it has a mongrel board which is not at all patronage
cohesive
(iii) the linkage between members and member coops
patronage interests and the mills operation are weak

Kudsat village dairy cooperative dealt in fertilizers, arrange

tractor as well as crop loan, run a cloth store, operate a
weigh bridge, own a truck, manage a fair price shop,
undertake pooling of paddy and press paddy stream for
sale.

It broke all rules of Anand Pattern.

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 Surat : Known for its highly
successful sugar Cooperatives

Other types of Cooperatives flourished

- Banana Cooperatives
- Dairy Cooperatives
- Samul Surat District Dairy Union
Departed from the blue print of Amul. Best
Rated union of Gujarat
- Rs.130/kg.

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 Sugar Coops., Fruit and Vegetable Coop.,
Handloom and Powerloom Coop., Paddy
Cooperatives, Cotton ginning and pressing
Societies, PACS, LAMPs
Area is thus convulsed with Cooperatives
- Run in Profit.
- Patronage Central (command a large share of
their respective business)
- Member Central (they control their members
economies)
- Domain Central (they are important relative to
the entire economy of their domain) 6
Cooperative Systems which are designed for
high level of business performance make
relatively modest demands in terms of
leadership and management caliber

Corollary : If a community or a region can make

ill designed cooperatives perform well, the
credit must be assigned to exceptional
leadership and management capability

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 Secret of Surat
1. Particulars as a community :
- More Calculative, compare cost and benefits

- More Economic

- More Practical

- More Paid and stress clean orderly life

Patlidars identify closely with their community.
Patronizing outlook towards tribals and other
communities
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2. Influence of Affluence :
High Level of Affluence
Long positive experience of Cooperatives
1. It has raised their ability to take risks
2. By promoting capital accumulation it has
raised their ability to enhance their
affluence further
3. Do not need to worry about subsistence,
the welfare of the community has acquired

somewhat greater importance 9

80 years of positive experience
Surat DCB – 1909
New Cooperative Venture – 1930
Sugar factories – Late 40’s
- Coops played a powerful and positive role in
the farm economy
- Men who set and popularized high standards
of conduct for cooperative leaders
Generated a powerful climate of faith and belief
in cooperatives
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 Member Control
Puroshottam Farmers President – resign after 35 years
120 members emotional – WHY ‘RESIGN’
- Questions about items in balance sheet, prices paid,
feasibility of investment placed
- Each question was responded emotionless
Members come prepared to AGM
Approach the Cooperative office and collect information
AGMs are not eyewash

The Chairman and the board meet once a year, they too
are accountable to someone
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 Cooperative Leadership
45-50 district and sub-district level leanders who have
directed themselves completely to cooperatives
Taken cooperative Leadership – Honorary Full-time
profession
Norms and values – Parsimony, integrity, personal
sacrifice, priority to capital accumulation over surplus
distribution, separation of cooperative work from
mainstream politics, minimization of electoral conflict
and acceptance, in principle and practice, of
members right to question the leaders behaviour and
actions.
Frugality – Cost Control
Pooling Culture-margin small and value addition of a
limited order
Marketing Culture-More and more value addition
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 Honorary Full Time Profession
Surat Cooperative Leader-stature and not to worry
about running his own household

A tribal of Surat however capable can scarcely become a

cooperative leader without dirtying his hand with ill
gotten wealth

Not Charismatic

Not Diplomatic or even tactful

Transparent, Honest, Administrative skills

Knowledge about industry and far sightedness

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 Leadership Propensities
Avoid Electoral conflict to the extent possible

Tend to retain surpluses and invest in fixed

assets

To clearly separate cooperative ‘public life’

from mainstream politics

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 COOPERATIVE KIERETSU
Networking and the operational form that it has
given to the principle of cooperation amongst
cooperatives
Japan – Interlocked Governance
Reasons
- Inter locking has become possible is that all
cooperatives in Surat in effect controlled by
farmers through their cooperative leaders.

- All Federal Cooperatives are under effective

control of Cooperative leaders and because of
the operation of cooperative kieretsu. 15