Generational renewal and the incorporation of women into the rural world are fundamental for the sustainability and modernisation of the agricultural sector. Hence the special government protection granted to the sector, which appears in both European legislation on rural issues and in the global strategy of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Rural Development Goals involving a commitment to measures aimed at helping young farmers to set up agricultural holdings and especially at encouraging women to engage in farm management. In the case of Spain, this is nothing new, given that Law 35/2011 on the Shared Ownership of Agricultural Holdings became a veritable revolution in terms of gender in the rural world when it came into force. The results section discusses the practical application of funding for young farmers to start up an agricultural holding through a technical and economic study, and a case study of a first-time farm set up by a young female farmer. The main contribution of this work lies in answering two questions. The first one is to evaluate the efficiency of the subsidies for young people to set up farms in terms of offering a decent, stable livelihood for young men and women in Spain and the Valencian Region. The second one attempts to verify the effectiveness of both European and Spanish active public policies to encourae young men and women to join the agricultural sector.

La Sociedad Agraria de Transformación y la Cooperativa agraria se incluyen dentro de la categoría de empresas agrarias asociativas, que gozan de personalidad jurídica independiente de la de sus socios, que se dedican a la actividad agraria y se consideran fundamentales para el desarrollo del asociacionismo agrario. Además, son las fórmulas asociativas de las que se ha hecho uso el sector agrario. En el presente artículo una vez se han puesto de manifiesto unas consideraciones previas sobre la empresa agraria, se realizará un análisis legislativo de la Sociedad Agraria de Transformación y la Cooperativa agraria, desgranando las principales diferencias entre ambas sociedades relativas a el objeto social, la constitución, la forma jurídica, los límites de los socios, el reparto de beneficios y los órganos de gestión entre otros.