Publication

This paper provides an overview of a study of the Lahaul Potato Society (LPS) in India, based on fieldwork conducted in 1996. It offers a framework to analyze the cooperative, highlighting the physical and social contexts of agricultural production systems. The authors examine objectives, structures, bylaws and resources of the LPS, providing research on marketing and potato production. They discuss political and administrative contexts among other factors to explain the LPS' emergence and institutional evolution. They evaluate the LPS' performance in terms of efficiency, equity in the distribution of benefits, and empowerment of members and conclude with a discussion of institutional constraints.