By Deepthi Kolady, Sujana Krishnamoorthy and Sudha Narayanan

The study shows that despite its many problems, HOPCOMS represents an "other" revolution paralleling the private sector-driven retail revolution. But the danger is that co-operatives such as HOPCOMS will be undermined by the large changes underway. There could be considerable value in preserving them, in scaling-up and replicating successful models if small-scale farmers are not to be left behind by the retail revolution.