Research On Cooperatives' Participation Behavior

With the promulgation and implementation of the "Farmer Cooperatives Law ",more and more farmers choose to participate in cooperatives.According to statistics published in June 2016,the number of farmers' professional cooperatives in China has reached 1669 thousand.Besides,the proportion of farmers' participation increased from 3.4%in 2004 to 42%in 2015.What about the actual development of these cooperatives?Cooperative seems to run well,but the real participation rate of farmers needs to be discussed.Besides,it is necessary to explore the main factors affecting the enthusiasm of farmers.In the existing literature,some scholars questioned the existence of false participation of cooperative in the actual situation.However,there is little systematic theoretical analysis in this area.Based on the survey data of Jiangsu Province and Jilin Province in 2014,this paper sets up an analytical framework of transaction cost theory to conduct a systematic study on the farmers' participation behavior through case analysis.Finally,the author gives a scientific answer to the main reasons that affect the participation of cooperative members,and provides some valuable suggestions on the basis of the conclusions.The core content of this paper includes the following parts:(1)This paper firstly explores the proper participation and attribution of cooperative members from the nature of cooperatives."The owner and the patrons are the same" is the essence of cooperatives.Further,the return of the trade volume and the principle of democratic management are the concrete manifestation,which is intended to increase their participation enthusiasm.(2)Then,the author investigates some practical situations,including farmers' participation behavior,identity attribution and the organizational function of cooperatives based on the survey data of Jiangsu Province and Jilin Province.(3)Finally,this paper establishes a theoretical analysis framework to explain the behavior of farmers' participation based on the theory of transaction cost.Then the empirical study is carried out through case comparison.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)The participation of farmers and the sense of belonging in cooperatives is generally low,besides many farmers are even false participation.(2)The main reason for the low participation of farmers in cooperatives is from the following three aspects.Firstly,The formation and operation cost of cooperatives are relatively high due to the obvious heterogeneity and the generally small scale in farmers management;Secondly,cooperatives are more conducive to reducing the high cost of transactions due to asymmetric information in the absence of effective food safety supervision system;Finally,it is not only difficult to reduce the organization cost of cooperatives,but also encourages the false cooperative and participation behavior with the current main material support.On the basis of the above research,this paper draws the following policy implications:(1)It is not available for most farmers to create or join cooperatives under the current economic conditions and policy environment.The government should respect the choice of farmers.The material support in policy will only encourage false cooperatives and participation behavior.(2)At present,the lack of appropriate conditions for the development of cooperatives does not mean that there is no need to establish cooperatives with the agricultural and rural development.What the government needs to do is to improve the external market environment of cooperative on the basis of fully considering the suitable conditions.In implementation,we can establish an effective food safety regulatory system to give full play to the role of cooperatives in the promotion of food safety.In ideology,it is importantly to strengthen the correct understanding of farmers and government sectors to the cooperatives,so that farmers have a higher enthusiasm to participate in cooperatives and the government will not set the hard targets to establish it.In policy,the government should give more support to the construction of farmers'organizational capacity,including the ability of farmers to manage and operate cooperatives.