Liu Yan, Information Center, DRC

Research Report No.126, 2016 (Total 5009) 2016-09-18

Abstract: Since the 18th CPC National Congress, local governments have taken a proactive approach in leading and supporting the regular development of specialized farmer cooperatives, gradually shifting the focus of its development from quantity to quality. To know about the development status of cooperatives in China, the research team sent by DRC made a questionnaire survey of 90 cooperatives in 22 provinces including Zhejiang, Hubei and Hebei etc, and the team also made a field survey in Hebei and Beijing. The results show that most cooperatives are newly established, 50% of them gain merely moderate profits, through land trust, land transfer, and the pooling of land and capital. The existing problems mainly include that farmers are not given a full play to their roles, the cooperatives lack market competitiveness, and the system for cooperatives Union and the management of shareholding enterprises is incomplete. This paper suggests that the government should give stronger policy support to cooperatives, encourage the development of multiple operation forms, properly handle the relationship between government and cooperatives, adopt differentiated supportive policies and promote standardization of cooperatives.

Key words: specialized farmer cooperatives, standardization, supportive policies, questionnaire survey