A Study on the Function of the Multi-Purpose Agriculture Cooperative and Their Credit Undertakings

―A Case Study of the Noheji City Agricultural Cooperative―

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the functional transformation of credit operations in the development of small-scale rural agriculture cooperatives, as well as their relationship with other operations within the cooperative. The direction of the development of the multi-purpose agriculture cooperative and its credit undertakings are also discussed. The study concludes that credit operations bear a close relationship with other undertakings at each stage of the development of small-scale rural agriculture cooperatives and that they play an important role in improving agricultural production as well as the living conditions of member farmers, for whom the existence of the agriculture cooperative is indispensable. Finally, it is proposed that such agriculture cooperatives return to their original purposes and goals, not as credit-dependent cooperatives but as sales-generating cooperatives.