Research On The Governance Of Farmer Cooperatives

The research object of this paper is the management problem of farmer cooperatives. The definition of "farmer cooperatives" according to "the farmer cooperatives law of RPC" is "the mutual economic organization of voluntary cooperation and democratic management among the producer and manager of the same kind of agricultural products or the provider and the user of the same kind of agricultural production and management service on the basis of rural household contract management". Cooperatives take their internal members as the main service object, through the purchase of agricultural production information, agricultural production and management of technology, information, agricultural products sales, processing, transportation, storage, etc., to provide related services to cooperatives and members. Through the purchase, production, sales and other links, in the technology, information, services and other fields, to play a role in the members and the collective, will strengthen the functions of farmers’ professional cooperatives, and effectively promote the operation of farmers’ production and management level, so as to improve the level of farmers’income."Issues concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers" is a key link in the process of China’s social and economic development process, which has gained extensive attention from all social sectors. The "Issues concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers" are special contents in important documents and policies, such as No.1 file in 2013,2014 and 2015, and "the Communique of Third.Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the CPC ". Farmer problem is the prior problem of "Issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers". Only by solving the problems of increasing farmers’ income, improving their material life level, only by change the visage of every peasant family. On this basis will achieve the rural stability and prosperity of agriculture.The "farmer cooperatives" as the economic organization form that comes after the "household contract responsibility system", has been rapidly developing in its scale and business projects, because of its mechanism based on the voluntary association of farmers, the economic benefits to farmers in agricultural materials procurement, agricultural production, and agricultural products marketing, and the conform to the national macro-economic policy. Correspondingly, the problems of farmer cooperatives also very obvious, mainly in two aspects, one is the "formal" governance is not standardized, in institutional settings, the division of responsibilities, rights conferred, benefit-sharing and other aspects there is no clear basis and standards, resulting in disorderly management, low efficiency; the second is "informal" governance is not in place, in co-op governance not fully get the resources stakeholders, the economic and social benefits are not high, so that farmers could not be satisfied, did not meet the requirements of government departments. Problems for cooperative governance, identify targeted solutions, one a "management transplant", stressing that "official governance" rigid standardized management, the introduction of the company’s enterprises mature governance theory and practice, to establish responsibility within the cooperatives the right to distinct regulatory agencies; the second is a "cultural embedding" and take advantage of the flexible role of "informal governance", coordinating local culture, the interests of administrative culture, cultural contract, taking into account the farmers, cooperatives, government departments and other stakeholders. Currently, from the "Managing Migration" and "cultural embedding" Two aspects of Farmer Cooperatives governance literature is still relatively rare. Cooperative development process problems for managers, researchers, practitioners provide a wide space to think.This paper conducts research from the view of improving the governance of cooperatives and comprehensively analyzes of management migration and cultural embedded affects two aspects of cooperative governance. In "Managing Migration" introduce enterprise management mode, standardized cooperative organizations and corresponding authority, through responsibilities, rights and benefits of combining clear material interest. To "cultural embedding" promoting the value of integration, coordination of development goals, taking into account the economic interests of all parties and social benefits, optimize operational mode, highlight the inherent potential. Formal governance, combined with informal governance of both, will play positive role for analyzing the agricultural development, rural stability, increasing farmers’ income and other issues, and provide valuable experiences for the study of "Issues concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers" and "the new rural construction".This study was based on social investigation, instructed by "management transplantation", "cultural-embedding", etc. theories, paying attention to the country’s rural policy and social and economic development goals. Through on-the-spot investigation to the farmers, it conducted in order to the sample data and internal comparison as the basis for the analysis of farmers’choices on cooperatives all aspects of the selection.Meanwhile, it conducted typical investigation on the cooperatives, based on which, the effectiveness, was analyzed, of management. and the significance of "management transplantation" and "cultural-embedding" on the development of farmer cooperatives, to determine the role of "cultural-embedding" for the agricultural marketing organizations. Main work done by this essay is as follows:First, understand basic information through the survey of rural household. The scopes of survey from two provinces (Jilin and Liaoning), five counties and cities (Lishu County, Gongzhuling City, Da’an City, Tieling County, Changtu County) and 7 townships and towns(Shenyang Town, Linhai Town, Fanjiatun Town, Xiangshui Town, Lianhe Township, Sanjiangkou Town and Zhenxipu Town). At the same time, the related information of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has also conducted a more detailed understanding.Second, understand present situation of the agricultural marketing organization by investigating more than 40 cooperatives’chairmen and three representative cooperatives. Investigation from chairmen helps understand the farmer cooperatives’problems in the production and business operation; that from cooperatives helps grasp economic benefits the cooperatives bring to farmers. This paper will analyze of existing problems and specific reasons go through literature query to find experts’pertinence opinions, and give the appropriate summary.Third, analyze the organization change and the governance of cooperatives. By understanding the characteristics of the organization, as well as the historical change of cooperatives, this paper pointed out the key link of cooperatives during the establishing and developing process. In view of the farmer cooperatives’basic indicators and leader’ quality, governance approaches of farmer cooperatives are presented.Fourth, in this part, the significance of cultural-embedding explained of the mechanism by various factors, such as the external environment, the internal stability and the driving force which constitute to the economic organizations development. Meanwhile, the paper illustrated the necessity and feasibility of cultural-embedding and put forward to the implementation conditions and existing problems about it.Fifth, evaluate of the effect of management and interest integration. Design the evaluation index of cooperative society, including quantitative index and qualitative index. Analysis on the leader’s quality and ability in order to avoid the sheep-flock effect on the agricultural economy, highlighting the cooperatives to "lead the hotshots" special, the evaluation process and the ideal state is described.The main conclusions of this study include:First, the agricultural cooperative organizations are an important platform for farmers to increase income. It is a new requirement to the development of market economy for the individual small-scale peasant of agricultural production and operation. In individual household becomes increasingly unsuitable to the reality, which also cannot bear market and environment pressure. The choice of agricultural production materials, collection and processing of agricultural information, transportation and storage of agricultural products, absorption of new agricultural technology and the introduction, development and popularization of the new product, are areas that become more inaccessible for the individual farmers. In order to participate in the operation of the agricultural economy, independent farmers are required to establish the adequate agricultural cooperative organizations. The constraint conditions of formation, entry and exit, the interest distribution mechanism and service content should conform to both the needs of the farmers and the national macro-economic policy. The common concern from individual farmers, cooperatives and the administrative department about economic benefits and social benefits realizes the "co-subject" theory. At the same time, "flexible management" which corresponding to local conditions makes the implementation of the administrative culture acceptable to farmers.Second, by managing migration official governance-based, the system management of the company is introduced, to regulate governance mechanisms of farmer cooperatives. The unsuitability between individual farmers and the market economy comes from the asymmetric between the individual strength and the great stage. The traditional agricultural production takes the family as the main body, so the production operation condition of the agricultural economic organization proposed the new request, farmers’ professional cooperatives to become an important link between farmers and markets. Because of the voluntary union of farmers, the farmers’ entry into the community is to increase their market competition ability, to increase the economic benefit of every farmer. As the economic organization, the internal mechanism, management level and operation state of the cooperative, not only directly affect the overall benefit, but also the cooperation intention of the members. Drawing on the mature management theory and the experimental experience of the company, the management of the farmer cooperatives will be promoted and perfected. Through the transplant corporate governance framework, in the decision-making, operation, supervision, and other aspects of the establishment of a good management structure in line with the characteristics of agriculture and the region, will be conducive to the development and growth of cooperatives.Third, taking into account the interests of stakeholders, through cultural embedding, supplemented by informal governance, the relationship among cooperatives, farmers, government and markets is balanced. The efficiency and benefit of agricultural management are the premise of agricultural products marketing. By studying the motivation of farmers to join cooperatives, we can find out the inner restraint mechanism of the positive operation of the cooperatives, and to promote the development and improvement of farmer cooperative. Cooperatives are the main groups of farmers as the main body of the joint, due to natural endowments, thinking, production conditions and other aspects of the different regions, different people have different effects, the rural traditional culture is important for coordinating the interests of farmers, farmers and cooperatives. In the process of development, the cooperation is promoted by the government’s macro policy, economic support, tax incentives and other aspects; the influence of local administrative departments is also an important factor, so the administrative culture is a factor that needs to be considered in the process of cooperative governance. Market economy is a contract economy, the cooperation between the internal members of the internal through the joint integration of internal members, external economic behavior through exchange to create economic benefits, so the contract culture is to meet the economic needs of the cooperative members of the important guarantee. In order to make the farmer cooperatives run smoothly, from the cultural point of view, the analysis of the influence of "local culture", "administrative culture" and "contract culture" to the farmers’ professional cooperatives becomes a problem worthy of study.The innovations of this study are the following three points:First, optimization of farmer cooperatives governance is an important means to improve farmers’status. Because of the limited financial resources of rural household, as the "atom" cannot get equal market economy status, in order to improve their bargaining position, but also to promote the development of agriculture, the cooperative has become the primary choice for farmers. The establish and perfect of farmer cooperatives is an important means of increasing the income of farmers, cooperatives as the platform, through agricultural procurement, agricultural production, agricultural product marketing, and other aspects, to improve agricultural efficiency, increase farmers’ economic benefits. The improvement of management level of farmer cooperative is not only the need to organize construction, information communication, quality improvement, variety optimization, reasonable storage and transportation, but also need to establish a good governance mechanism. The optimization of governance mechanism will adjust the boundaries of agricultural production and management, and make it coordinate with economic development, urban construction and so on. Good internal governance mechanism will play a role in the agricultural production and management of supply, production, marketing, will effectively promote the development of agriculture, rural stability, farmers’ income.Second, cooperatives standards are not unified, management is not standardized; management transplant is inevitable premise formal governance of farmer cooperatives, the introduction of a mature management model, Inc., will promote standardized management of cooperatives. By comparing the company with the cooperatives, we can find similarities and differences between them. In common is that their evaluation index the maximization of economic benefits are convenience, at the same time, the company of decision-making, execution and supervision mechanism in the cooperatives also come in handy. The difference is that the theory and practice of the company is mature, and the theory and practice of the cooperative is still developing and verified. Companies and shareholders are the pursuit of economic interests, while the cooperation is to pursue economic interests as a whole and strengthen the joint of the internal members. The relationship between the company and the shareholders is mainly investment and profit distribution, the cooperative is more of a joint". The company’s profit distribution is based on the amount of investment, while the distribution of the cooperative is more reflected in the patronage. By comparing the similarities and differences between them, it will make the management more effective.Third, cooperatives goals are not clear, the foundation is not solid; culture embedding is the main content of informal governance of farmer cooperatives, coordination of cultural identity, interests, and will reinforce the foundation for the development of cooperatives. Cooperation is because of cultural identity, and conflict is the source of cultural differences. Whether it is people’s daily communication, or economic organization of business management; whether it is external development, or internal optimization; whether people and people, or people and things, in communication, conflict, cooperation, all contain cultural factors. Agricultural production and operation both by the restriction of natural endowment, but also by the management of the executive branch of the government, is also affected by the local culture, folk customs, so in farmers’ professional cooperatives in the design of the system, we must consider the economic benefits and social benefits of the three aspects of the farmers, cooperatives, the administrative department. In the countryside, there are three kinds of culture that influence the daily life, production management and value choice of farmers. These three kinds of culture is local culture (from ancient times to the present, time of before and after), administrative culture (from top to bottom, level of high and low), the contract culture (the interaction between the two sides, equal bilateral relationship under the condition of market economy). Concerned about the impact of the three cultures, it is able to coordinate the interests of all parties in the right way, not only to maximize the overall interests, but also to allow the parties to get the same as expected. In light of the possible conflicts between Management Transplantation and Cultural-embedding, this paper proposes that "flexible management" should be used as the main method when solving problems.