This research aims to determine the demographic and economic factors affecting agriculture cooperation activity in Kosovo. Primary data was collected from 249 farmers in Kosovo through structured questionnaires using the random sampling technique. The results show that the level of cooperation among farmers in Kosovo is low due to the lack of trust in the cooperative institutions. The binary logistic regression analysis used in the study shows that location, gender, age, education level, trust, and farm size have significantly influenced the cooperation activity. Findings also highlight that the farmers who live in rural areas, as well as those who are young and have got a higher level of education and trust, show a higher level of activity associated with cooperation, whereas farms managed by (older) men with lower level of education are less likely to cooperate. Estimation indicates that medium sized farms show a high level of cooperation, which can be statistically verified, and only the type of farming has nonsignificant influence in cooperation.

The present study attempts to identify factors that influence the readiness of Hungarian agricultural producers’ to effectively and efficiently cooperate with each other. Analyses based on the binomial logistic regression method have revealed a clear correlation between activities conducive to cooperation, the demographics of producers, farming conditions and the level of trust. Findings highlight that producers who live in smaller rural settlements as well as those who are younger and have a higher level of educational attainment show a higher level of activity associated with cooperation that can be statistically justified whereas farms managed by women are less inclined to cooperate. Calculations indicate that as the size of holdings increases, their readiness for cooperation increases too, while in terms of the type of farming, crop farmers are more open to cooperate effectively than livestock farmers. Finally, this model has revealed a significant positive correlation between producers’ readiness to cooperate and their level of trust.

As reported by the GDP per capita Kosovo is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Relying on the importance and dependence of Kosovo`s economy, it is evident that the development of agriculture sector is among the prime concern of the country`s strategy and international support programs. Several international studies assess the potential of agricultural cooperatives in transforming traditional agricultural farms to modern market-oriented business units, accelerating growth and addressing rural poverty. This research aims to analyze the relationship between socio-demographic, agricultural, and economic factors pertaining to cooperative and noncooperative farmers in Kosovo and also shows their motivation and expectation related to agricultural practice and behavior. Primary data was collected in 2018 form 165 farmers through semi-structured questionnaires. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi square and T-test. The results indicated that there was a significant difference (p<0.01) between cooperative and non-cooperative farmers in various factors. Results indicated that the cooperative farmers have agricultural education, more family members are engaged in agricultural activity, have more access to seasonal employees, sharing machinery, higher readiness to invest in machinery with other farmers, and a high level of trust, they mostly operate in vegetable production and have higher income. Furthermore, the results showed differences in sales chain between two groups of farmers. The results contribute to governmental and non-governmental agencies to encourage farmers to establish/join viable cooperatives.

Empirical evidence shows that machinery sharing arrangements in Western European countries with developed agriculture are successful and largely effective in satisfaction of the machinery capacity needs of small and medium sized farms, reduction of production costs and improving profitability (see, for example, the results of machinery rings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland). In most Central and Eastern European countries, several more or less successful attempts have been made since the 1990s to introduce machine sharing partnerships similar to the ones in Western Europe. Such efforts in Hungary proved to be a failure because of the farmers' resistance. Previous research on the topic mentioned the farmers' little willingness to cooperate as the cause of the failure. Therefore, in this study we use the results of a questionnaire survey (N = 407) to try to identify the factors affecting the farmers' willingness to cooperate. Our results show that machine sharing partnerships of farmers exist in Hungary, but their number and intensity are typically low. The most typical forms of cooperation identified by our research are: machinery work based on reciprocity; lending machinery and equipment to each other; joint ownership of machinery. Our tests based on binomial logistic regression clearly justified the effect of demographic (sex, age, level of education), economic (size of farm, type of farm, asset supply) and sociological (contractual and competence trust) factors on the farmers' cooperation activity in machinery sharing arrangements. One important result is that the effect of the abovementioned factors is differentiated according to the area of cooperation.