Last Updated January 24, 2005
Cooperative Services (CS)
Helping form and operate agricultural cooperatives through research, technical assistance, information, training, educational materials, and limited funding for cooperative research agreements
The goal of the Cooperative Services program of USDA's Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) is to help rural residents form new cooperative businesses and improve the operations of existing cooperatives. To accomplish this, Cooperative Services provides technical assistance to cooperatives and those thinking of forming cooperatives. It also conducts cooperative-related research and produces information products to promote public understanding of cooperatives.
RBS is part of USDA's Rural Development mission area, which was created in 1994 when USDA consolidated rural economic programs that had previously been scattered among various agencies. RBS encompasses the former Agricultural Cooperative Service and some of the business and economic development programs of the former Rural Development Administration and Rural Electrification Administration.
For people interested in forming new rural cooperatives, CS provides a wide range of assistance— from an initial feasibility study to the creation and implementation of a business plan. CS staff includes cooperative development specialists who do everything from identifying potential cooperative functions through developing bylaws and business plans. They also provide training for cooperative directors.
CS also provides technical assistance to existing cooperatives facing specific problems or challenges. Technical assistance could include helping a cooperative develop a strategic marketing plan to cope with new competitive forces, decide whether to merge or form a joint venture with other cooperatives, or find a way to turn the raw products of cooperative members into value-added products. These matters are often life-and-death issues not only for cooperatives, but for the rural communities in which they operate.
CS maintains a storehouse of information about cooperatives, which it makes available to the public through more than 150 research reports, educational publications and videos covering all aspects of cooperative operations. A monthly magazine, Rural Cooperatives, reports significant achievement by cooperatives, the most advanced thinking of cooperative leaders, and highlights of agency research, technical assistance, and educational activities.
Project Examples
Cooperative Services has provided assistance
to a variety of groups of rural producers wishing
to add value to their products. Current and past
projects include:
- Establishing a modern, rural grocery store as a cooperative on a Native American reservation
- Helping small-scale hog producers organize a transportation and marketing cooperative to help save on costs and gain access to packers
- Assisting the formation of a cooperative for rural women who produce handcrafted gift items
- Conducting a feasibility analysis for producers of dry edible beans and helping them organize a marketing cooperative to increase their returns
- Assisting in the formation of an aquaculture cooperative to provide members a facility in which to process, package, and market crabmeat
- Working with a group of turkey farmers to form a cooperative to take over a closing processing plant, which saved and created jobs and prevented turkey farmers from losing a viable market
- Assisting the formation of vegetable marketing cooperatives to enable small tobacco farmers to diversify into a variety of alternative crops
Application and Financial Information
Except for the Rural Cooperative Development
Grant Program also profiled in this directory, CS
does not provide direct financial assistance.
However, USDA's Rural Business-Cooperative
Service (RBS) offers several other grant programs
for rural communities that are profiled on the
website: www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/
Eligibility, Uses, and Restrictions
Cooperative Services provides a wide range of
services for rural cooperatives.
Contact
CS staff members in the national office work
in conjunction with cooperative development
specialists at many of USDA's state Rural
Development offices. Technical assistance is
available through some of these offices. For educational
programs and workshops, and further
information about technical assistance available,
please write to the national program office. For
publications and videos about cooperatives, call
(202) 720-7558 or see the website.
James Haskell, Assistant Deputy Administrator
National Program Office
Cooperative Services
Rural Business-Cooperative Service, USDA
Stop 3250
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20250-3250
Phone: (202) 720-7558; Fax: (202) 720-4641
E-mail: coopinfo@rurdev.usda.gov
Internet
www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/coops/csdir.htm
