Agricultural cooperative (Agriculture Glossary)

Agricultural cooperative : Also called a farmers’ co-op or simply a co-op.

Any association of farmers or agricultural businesses who voluntarily pool their resources in order to meet their common agricultural needs and goals by cooperating in a jointly owned enterprise. Agricultural cooperatives may be distinguished between “service” cooperatives, which provide inputs for agricultural production (seeds, fertilizers, fuels, etc.) or transportation and marketing services to members who run their farms individually, and “production” cooperatives, in which members run their farms jointly using shared land, machinery, or other resources; an example of the latter is collective farming.