Cause Analysis of “Non-agricultural Trend†of Credit Cooperatives and Reversion Approaches

“Non-agricultural trend†of credit cooperatives is demonstrated as outflow of substantial contribution, application of credit fund in “non-agricultural sectors†and downsizing outlets. As a result, rural financial exclusion and insufficient effective supply of rural finance have been aggravated, and most rural households have been excluded from the service range of credit cooperatives. Major causes for such a trend were summarized as: (a) profit-driven nature of credit cooperatives; (b) conditionality of “agriculture, rural area and peasant†economy; (c) influence of macro-environment. It is proposed that credit cooperatives would only revert their focus to “agriculture, rural area and peasant†economy only if rural financial exclusion and economic restrictions on the development of credit cooperatives were removed, and the macro-environment was optimized.