Cooperatives and Producer Companies
Course Information
Course Length   : 3 weeks
Estimated Effort : 2 – 3 hrs per week
Course Overview
Cooperatives, also known as Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), play a vital role in the promotion and preservation of interests of small producers and marginal farmers who are otherwise unorganised and unable to realise good value for their produce.
Drawing on the empirical evidence from the field, this IIMBx MOOC Cooperatives and Producer Companies provides the learners with a comprehensive understanding of the importance of FPOs to a nation; the processes of setting up a sustainable and profitable FPO; and offers guidance on scaling an FPO. In this three-week long course, the learners will also be introduced to the basic principles of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA).
Trilochan Sastry
Professor
Decision Sciences
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB)
Course Syllabus
Week 01: Introduction
- Overview
- Defining a Cooperative
- Cooperative Principles
- What is not a Cooperative?
- A Conversation
- Cooperatives outside India
- Why do we need Cooperatives?
Week 02: Forming Cooperatives
- Introduction to Forming Cooperatives
- Role of NGOs
- Challenges faced by NGOs
- Pool and Sell Model of Forming Cooperatives
- Quality Assessment of the Produce
- Promoting Agency and the Cooperative
Week 03: Promoting Cooperatives
- Initial Operations for Promoting Cooperatives
- Financing a Cooperative
- Suggestions for a Better Functioning Cooperative
- Mistakes to be Avoided for a Better Functioning Cooperative
- Marketing and Organizational Framework for a Cooperative
- Pool, Process, Store and Sell Model
- The Way Forward
By the end of this course, a learner will be able to:
- Define a cooperative
- Illustrate how cooperatives can be set up successfully
- Analyse why Indian cooperatives have not done well in general
- Discuss how the cooperative situation in India can be changed
- Illustrate on financing the genuine FPOs.
Policy makers, Executives in financial institutions and banks, students pursuing post graduate and anyone who is actually promoting new cooperatives.