LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter will be treated in the following sub-headings
Concept of Agricultural cooperative
Concept of rural development
Concept of rural communities
History of Agricultural cooperative in Nigeria
Roles of Agricultural cooperative in rural development
Theories of rural development
Empirical study
Gap in knowledge
2.1 CONCEPT OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES
An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a cooperative where farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity. A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural service cooperatives, which provide various services to their individually farming members, and agricultural production cooperatives, where production resources (land, machinery) are pooled and members farm jointly.(David, 2002)Examples of agricultural production cooperatives include collective farms in former socialist countries, the kibbutzim in Israel, collectively governed community shared agriculture, Longo Mai co-operatives(Staatz, 1999) and Nicaraguan production co-operatives. According to The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1999), Agricultural Cooperative is also a type of cooperative that unites agricultural producers for production or other activities needed by the members (such as processing, marketing of output, or supply of the means of production). agricultural cooperatives in many of the modern developed capitalist countries have become complex socioeconomic organisms that encompass the production, processing, storage, and sale of agricultural products; the crediting of agriculture; and the production and supply to the farmers of the means of production for agriculture. Agricultural cooperatives often organize on the basis of vertical integration: the purchase-supply cooperatives process and market farm products and organize technical service by establishing appropriate enterprises, and the credit cooperatives, in addition to financial