Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies in South-East Asia

Abstract

“ Credit cooperatives occupy a central position in the cooperative structure that can conveniently be called the Raiffeisen system. In the middle of last century the first step towards a more tolerable existence for farmers in Germany—and elsewhere—was to break the grip of the money-lenders. But it is worth noting that Raiffeisen was well aware that credit cooperatives by themselves could not bring about the revolutionary changes that were needed. The farmer needed not only a source o f credit on fair terms but alternative ways of obtaining his supplies and marketing his produce. The moneylender, as often as not, was also the merchant who sold the farmer his seeds and other requisites and marketed his grain, dairy products or livestock, the only way to beat him was by creating new channels that by-passed him completely.