Study On Economic Benefits Of Agricultural Standardization In The Cooperatives

Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy. The issue of agro-products’ quality and safetyis related to sustainable development of agriculture and people’s health. As an important measure ofimproving agro-products’ quality and safety, agricultural standardization could make sure agro-products’quality and safety and enhance the competitiveness of agriculture. Therefore, it’s a good way to achieveeffective management of the government and efficiency of agricultural production. Agriculturalstandardization is a process, in which the principles of―unification, simplification, coordination andoptimization‖are adopted, and agricultural standards for the whole process from pre-production topost-production are formulated and implemented to promote the extension of advanced agriculturalscientific and technological achievements and experience and to ensure agro-products’ quality andsafety. Nowadays, agricultural standardization is mainly implemented by governments and uniformimplementation models are normally used in some regions. Since agricultural standardization is in theexploration and promotion stage, the operating mechanism of implementation models still need to beimproved, and the adaptability of implementation requirements need to be investigated. At the sametime, the implementation of agricultural standardization changes the traditional mode of agriculturalproduction, which will inevitably cause changes of economic benefits. In order to achievecomprehensive and sustained advance of the agricultural standardization, it is necessary to improvevarious measures and implementation models of agricultural standardization, to convert the promotionby governments to the pull by markets, and to achieve the double protection of agro-products’ qualityand economy.In this paper the impact of agricultural standardization on economic benefits in the most commonlyused development model: cooperatives, was analyzed based on systems theory, market failure theory,transaction cost theory, economies of scale theory and supply chain management theory. Logistic modelanalysis and field surveys on cooperatives and their members were conducted to empirically analyze thespecific impact of agricultural standardization’ measures on agro-products’ economic benefits in thecooperatives. In addition, Qifeng selenium-rich kiwi professional cooperative in Mei County, as atypical case, was analyzed to find out a valid path of agricultural standardization which not only ensuredagro-products’ quality and safety but also promoted economic benefits. Finally, the research results wereconcluded and some suggestions were put forward in aspects of cooperatives’ own construction, qualityof personnel, market optimization and government policies to improve the measures of agriculturalstandardization.