An Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Society, by whatever name called, is a cooperative society whose primary object is to supply agricultural or non-agricultural products or inputs, or to facilitate procurement and marketing of agricultural products to augment the income of farmers and to render such other services to its members and other customers as may be required in the interest of development.
Co-operative Marketing, a two tier structure, is a co-operative association of cultivators formed primarily for the purpose of helping the members to market their produce and get those agricultural inputs eliminating the chain of functionaries operating between the farmers and end-consumers.
The West Bengal State Co-operative Marketing Federation Ltd. (BENFED) the apex federation of Primary Cooperative Agricultural Marketing and Processing Cooperative Societies. The object and function of BENFED is marketing of agricultural produce from the farmers and supplying of different agricultural inputs to the farmers through its affiliated cooperative societies. It provides technical consultancy to its member cooperatives for construction of Godowns, Cold Storages, and agricultural processing units.