Vol. 1, Issue 11, Part H (2015)

Abstract
Indian economy is mainly agriculture based. Farming is said to be the back bone of the country’s economy. Currently this sector is going through a bad phase & it seems that the impact of the new economic world order i.e. LPG is getting increasingly felt by the sector. Lack of professional business management skills, low farm yield due to use of traditional methods of cultivation, feasibility issues with the farming activity, global competition etc. are some of the problems being faced by the Indian agricultural sector. In addition to this contract farming, lease farming, entry of MNC’s in the farming activity etc. has created lots of uncertainty & threats to the small farmers of India. This has resulted into lots of socio-economic problems for the country in general & small farmers in particular. The cooperatives have inherent advantages in tackling the problems of poverty alleviation, food security and employment generation. Whether the cooperative sector can address some of these issues? What is the current scenario of cooperative sector in India? How this sector can address the problems created by LPG era in India? are the topics of deliberation of this paper.