Q.Write a note on the co-operative movement in Maharashtra, with special reference to co-operative sugar factories.

The co-operative is the institution that most defines Maharashtra's rural economy, and the co-operative sugar factory is its most celebrated success.

A co-operative is a voluntary, member-owned and member-run organisation formed for the mutual economic benefit of its members, on the principle of "one member, one vote". Maharashtra is regarded as the cradle of India's co-operative movement.

Co-operative sugar factories. The most celebrated example is the co-operative sugar factory. Asia's first co-operative sugar factory was set up at Pravaranagar, in Ahmednagar district (now Ahilyanagar), in 1950, on the initiative of Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil with the economist D. R. Gadgil. Its key idea was that the sugarcane-growing farmers themselves became the shareholders of the factory that processed their cane, so the value added in processing came back to the growers. The model spread rapidly across the sugarcane belt of Western Maharashtra, and the state became a national leader in sugar production. These factories also built schools, roads, hospitals and credit networks, becoming engines of rural development.

Other co-operatives. The form spread well beyond sugar, into:

• co-operative credit societies and urban/co-operative banks (farm and small-business credit);
• dairy co-operatives (pooling and marketing milk);
• co-operative marketing and processing societies (cotton, oilseeds, fruit); and
• consumer and housing co-operatives in the towns. …

Getting the location/year of Asia's first co-operative sugar factory wrong (Pravaranagar, Ahmednagar, 1950); treating co-operatives as government-o …