What is the future direction of farmers' professional cooperatives?

It has been more than eight years since the promulgation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Farmers 'Professional Cooperatives. According to statistics from the Specialized Cooperative Office of the General Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, more than one million farmers 'cooperatives have been registered with industrial and commercial departments nationwide. At present, farmers 'cooperatives have become an important organizational carrier for carrying out large-scale management in rural areas of our country and an important subject for constructing a new agricultural management system. As the positive factors of farmers 'cooperatives in market economy are continuously recognized by the masses, a market-oriented and more advanced union form-farmers' cooperatives have begun to appear in grass-roots practice. According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, there are currently more than 6000 farmers 'cooperatives set up at the grass-roots level in China.

The trend towards union not only reflects the demand of farmers for cooperation at a higher level, but also is the inevitable trend of the development of farmers 'professional cooperatives. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee clearly put forward that it is necessary to "speed up the construction of a new agricultural management system", encourage rural development of cooperative economy, and support the development of farmers 'professional cooperatives. In 2013 and 2014, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee also clearly stated that "guiding farmers 'cooperatives to cooperate and unite with products and industries as links" and "guiding the development of farmers' professional cooperatives". It can be seen that guidelines for action have been established at the national level to encourage and guide farmers 'cooperatives to develop alliances and cooperation and to form farmers' cooperatives.

Reasons for the Formation of Farmers 'Cooperative Union

From cooperatives to unions, represents the emergence of a new contractual relationship. The emergence of this contractual relationship necessarily enables some potential profits within the organizational system to be realized.

Potential profit is a kind of profit that the subject of change can not get in the existing institutional arrangement structure (it can be understood as profit opportunity when the system is unbalanced), and it is the fundamental motive force to induce the subject of behavior and decision-making to make cost-benefit comparison spontaneously and implement institutional innovation.

The contractual arrangements of farmers 'cooperatives allow potential profits to be realized that cannot be realized by individual cooperatives.

First, contractual linkages between cooperatives enable unions to achieve economies of scale. Through a certain contractual relationship, cooperatives can realize union and cooperation, which can make cooperatives "big", gather "strength" and "real", rapidly improve the scale of production and operation, establish a basis for negotiation with agricultural enterprises, so as to obtain more profits in terms of means of production, services and products, and realize economies of scale that a single cooperative cannot achieve.

Second, the contractual linkage mechanism within the union can internalize the external economy. Within the union, the cooperative reached a mutually beneficial contract mechanism, which not only contained the economic interest relationship between pure market subjects (known as the explicit contract), but also into the rural community, clan, village mutual aid mechanism (known as the implicit contract), so that cooperatives provide products and services for other cooperatives when the external economy is rewarded within the union, to achieve the internalization of the external economy.

Third, the contractual linkage mechanism within the union can disperse the risks of individual cooperatives. The union unifies all kinds of cooperatives under the same institutional framework. While realizing complementary advantages, it can also reduce the uncertainty and weak position of a single cooperative when facing the market of means of production, technology market, agricultural product sales market and financial market, so as to achieve the purpose of dispersing risks.

Fourthly, the contractual linkage mechanism inside the cooperative can save the external transaction cost of the cooperative. For example, cooperatives organize cooperatives upstream and downstream of products through vertical integration to form interest communities, which can effectively reduce transaction costs between cooperatives.

Characteristics of Different Contract Connection Modes in Union

According to the investigation, there are four types of farmers 'cooperatives in China: production union, sales union, industrial chain union and comprehensive union.

(i) Productive associations. Production-type cooperatives generally have the following characteristics: (1) mainly produce a certain kind of famous, special and excellent agricultural products in a certain area;(2) actively attract professional cooperatives of the same products to join in order to reach a certain production scale as soon as possible and obtain economies of scale;(3) focus on improving the standardization, mechanization and modernization level of production, and try to carry out primary processing, direct supply and direct sales, etc., extending to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain;(4) Professional cooperatives with outstanding business strength and good reputation are needed to take the lead and support relevant government departments.

(2) Marketing associations. Sales cooperatives generally have the following characteristics: (1) mainly engaged in the production, rough processing and sales of vegetables, fruits and other agricultural products, close to the terminal consumer market;(2) vigorously play the leading role of core member cooperatives, and carry out different depth and breadth of business coordination with other cooperatives;(3) Actively stabilize sales channels through "agricultural cooperative docking" and other ways, and strive to sell the products of member cooperatives with fewer links and better prices;(4) Pay attention to cultivating joint brands, subdivide the agricultural products of member cooperatives and carry out differentiated marketing.

(3) Industrial chain association. The industrial chain association has the following characteristics: (1) production technology, management methods, sales channels, etc. rely on agricultural enterprises, and professional cooperatives led by enterprises are the core of the organization;(2) enterprises are generally agricultural materials producers or agricultural product processing sellers, and it is necessary to stabilize agricultural materials sales or raw material purchase with upstream and downstream extension of the industrial chain;(3) the overall cooperation of the industrial chain is close.

(4) Comprehensive associations. The characteristics of this kind of association are as follows: (1) rooted in traditional rural communities, the geographical distribution of members is very strong, and most of them are bounded by counties and townships (towns);(2) the members are mainly various cooperatives in their own regions, and they widely attract farmers and agricultural enterprises to join;(3) the service content and form are flexible and diversified, and the business scope will be continuously expanded according to their own needs, community needs and market conditions;(4) Members mainly obtain various services from the Union, and rarely trade with the Union.

inspiration and reflection

By analyzing the contractual linkage mechanism of farmers 'cooperatives in China, we can find that the emergence of cooperatives has its profound institutional roots. From the establishment of the United Society and its development type, we can draw the following enlightenment:

First, China's farmers 'cooperatives can realize economies of scale and scope at a higher level. This organizational form is an important part of China's modern agricultural management system. Relevant departments should speed up the introduction of support policies for farmers' cooperatives.

Second, the differentiation of peasant cooperatives has its inherent economic law. In view of the various types of cooperatives that have emerged, we should adopt an inclusive and classified guidance policy, and encourage farmers 'cooperatives to carry out extensive union and cooperation on the basis of respecting grass-roots initiative and creativity. Government departments should create favorable conditions and give the association a legal position as a market entity. Encourage associations to form a close interest linkage mechanism such as production-oriented associations; provide a platform for agricultural products exhibition and brand creation for sales-oriented associations; guide industry-chain associations to innovate internal connection methods and encourage them to develop comprehensively in the direction of vertical integration and horizontal integration; and guide comprehensive associations to widely carry out various agricultural services in an orderly manner.

Third, we should pay equal attention to development and standardization, and supervise and support simultaneously. It is necessary to strengthen supervision and supervision to prevent the emergence of "listed cooperatives" and "empty cooperatives" in the field of united cooperatives under the brand of united cooperatives without engaging in agricultural production and operation activities or obtaining state fund support.