Marketing co-operatives, which emerged primarily in the agrarian context, were adopted by the Indian state as the vehicle for tribal development. twenty-five years after the initiation of these co-operatives (LAMPS), their performance leaves mush to be desired. This case study of the LAMPS in Karnataka state reveals that this dismal performance is due not just to the bureaucratic interference that characterise all co-operatives in contemporary India, but also to the inattention to fundamental problems in transferring the co-operative model across sectors and social situation.