The Equity Setting Of Farmers' Professional Cooperatives And The Choice Of Dividend Policy

In the reform of the rural collective property rights system,under the continuous promotion of the No.1 Document of the Ministry of Agriculture and local governments,a number of cooperatives with joint-stock characteristics have emerged.These cooperatives are unique in the following ways.They are led by able people in the villages.Farmers and herdsmen,participating voluntarily,will establish a farmers' professional cooperative and become shareholders by using the village collective's or their own assets.They can buy the shares in different ways,and get the dividends at the end of a year.In rural collective economies in the developed regions of China,the development of the cooperatives with characteristics of shareholding are unprecedented.It boosted the income of farmers,created a new material basis for rural economy and promoted the supply-side reform in agriculture to a certain extent.In this process,however,some thorny problems have gradually emerged,such as the quantification of farmers' assets with which they buy the shares,ways to set the equity of the cooperative,and distribution policies at the end of the year.These problems have become constraints in the reform of the joint-stock cooperatives.Therefore,in this paper we investigated the foregoing issues by studying the case of the Alashan Gold Gobi Camel Cooperative.Our research includes:(1)Under the guidance of research on cooperative theory and joint-stock cooperative system,we examined the operation of the Al Gossain King Gobi Cooperative,studied the current ownership structure and interest distribution policies,and analyzed some important issues which need to be resolved in the process of shareholding.(2)We conducted field surveys and in-depth analysis of the King Gobi Cooperatives.Based on its own characteristics,we discussed the reasons why they should or should not introduce collective stocks.Then we presented different stocks for different farmers and herdsmen,mainly including two types—those for ordinary members and thoses for low-income ones.According to different types of equity assets,we established cash stocks,labor contribution stocks,and poverty alleviation capital stocks.(3)As for dividend distribution policy,under the guidance of relevant theories,taking into consideration the operating conditions of the Golden Gobi Cooperative,we analyzed the factors affecting the distribution of dividends in the rural cooperatives.Using dividend policies of listed companies for reference,we designed dividend distribution policy for different stages for the Golden Gobi Cooperative.Through the above studies,it is concluded that: setting equity for cooperatives will boost the income of farmers and herdsmen who join the equity-incorporating cooperatives.Selecting a reasonable dividend policy for cooperatives will make the operation of joint-stock cooperatives more normative.Poverty-reducing funds,when used to buy shares of special industrial cooperatives,will provide new approaches for precision poverty alleviation.