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Abstract
Israel’s agriculture is agriculture of cooperatives, with cooperative structures
accounting for about 80% of agricultural production and agricultural
services. This article traces the development of agricultural cooperation in
Israel from its ideological origins at the beginning of the 20th century,
through the formative decades of the 1920s and the 1930s when the
organizational structure of the kibbutz and the moshav crystallized, and on
to the vigorous growth and expansion in the independent State of Israel
between 1948 and 1985. The article shows how the seeds of the financial
crisis that struck the cooperative sector in 1986 had been sown during the
expansion decades. Causes of the financial crisis are analyzed and the
policies developed for its resolution are described in detail. Consistent
implementation of these policies has led to impressive recovery of the
agricultural cooperatives in Israel, culminating with the emergence of the
New Kibbutz and the New Moshav in the first decade of the 21st century.