Rural Cooperative Marketing Management Efficiency in the Era of Globalization: A Synthesis of Case Studies of F&V Marketing

The present study, carried out in the state of Maharashtra during 2003-04, has its foci on the cooperative leadership and characteristics in cooperative success and failure, especially with respect to fruit marketing societies operating in Maharashtra. The study concentrates on two societies dealing with the marketing of banana in the state of Maharashtra – one showing success (NCFSS) and the other failure (KGFSS) due to positive and negative leadership qualities and characteristics associated with societies. Due to strong financial position, the NCFSS showed autonomy/independence in its functioning. This society had shown perfect knowledge about the market forces and its business activities in accordance to the new domestic as well as global market environment. The KGFSS showed poor grasp either in terms of studying the market forces or shown inefficiency because of its own internal drawbacks in terms of managing the society or its own personal interests involved in the functioning of the society. The KGFSS is unable to generate allies for lobbing to safeguard as well as promoting its own interests and the interests of its members, whereas NCFSS is quite successful in such lobbing and promotional interest related activities. Since a significant number of fruit marketing societies operating in Maharashtra have shown a falling trend in their amount of extension of loan and its recovery, and also in respect of higher amount of losses in proportion to profit, efforts should be made to rectify these deficiencies in the functioning of these societies dealing with the marketing of high value crops. Some remedial measures and strategies framed or initiated by these marketing societies, particularly in respect of recovery of their loan advances, will certainly improve the efficiency and functioning of these societies in the future. Government support in this respect will have a catalytic effect in improving the overall efficacy and efficiency, as well as functioning