It is established that the existing banking system is aimed primarily at lending to highly concentrated agricultural enterprises and is not adapted to the needs of small rural businesses.

Therefore, the creation of an effective mechanism for lending to small and medium-sized agricultural entities through a credit cooperative system is of particular relevance.

     Rural credit co-operation is a parallel to banks, an alternative financial system that has begun to firmly occupy a niche in the country's credit and financial system. Its line of business is financial services for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and villagers who cannot be serviced by banks in rural areas.

     It is proved that the effective activity of credit cooperation is conditioned by the creation of appropriate prerequisites. This is, first of all, voluntary establishment of credit cooperative institutions and accumulation of funds of individuals and legal entities; the purpose of the credit cooperative to ensure the mode of greatest assistance to its participants in credit, settlement, consulting, and other types of services; recognition of the variety of organizational forms of credit cooperative institutions; the direction of use of accumulated financial resources mainly for production purposes; providing financial support to the credit cooperative and legal and consulting assistance from the state.

     It is determined that the economic essence of credit cooperation is largely determined not by the type and nature of the participants' activity, but by the specifics of the actions and functions that they cooperate with. The involvement of unions of temporarily free funds of all categories of the population will allow to use its income in the areas of residence, in particular to direct them to the development of the agricultural sector.

     The creation of credit unions should be seen as encouraging the development of small businesses, including: promoting the development of production and processing of agricultural products in personal peasant and small farms, as well as the development of other small forms of farming in the agricultural sector and processing industry (including the promotion of the creation of agricultural service providers cooperatives); expanding the availability of credit resources for private farms and farms, as well as for cooperative units for the production, processing and marketing of agricultural products and services.

     Keywords: credit cooperation, credit union, population, personal peasant economy, farming, state.