In North East India, governments see cooperatives as a new mode of engagement with indigenous growers to overcome the challenges of integrating the region into market-led development. The Ginger Growers Cooperative Federation was set up in Karbi Anglong, Assam in the late 2000s to bring together ginger growers from different communities to facilitate better connections with the organic ginger market. After a decade, the cooperative has been sourcing the bulk of its produce only via traders—the agent it was supposed to replace. Thus, GIN-FED represents only a rhetoric of collective action, reminiscent of earlier development interventions that undermine traditional community institutions, without which cooperation among indigenous growers is not feasible.