The role of farmer cooperatives in promoting environmentally sustainable agricultural development in China: A review

Liang, Qiao; Ma, Kewei; Liu, Wenhao

doi:10.1111/apce.12444

Cited by 5 publications

References 67 publications

(102 reference statements)

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Alternative agrifood systems and the economic sustainability of farmers' cooperatives: The Chinese experience

Hu,

Zhang

2024

Sustainable Development

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Most registered farmers' cooperatives in China are de facto private enterprises; while many bring economic gains to farmers, they do not function as cooperatives. Among the small minority that started as authentic cooperatives, however, most struggled to provide economic benefits to members, unable to achieve economic sustainability. The failure of true farmers' cooperatives in China has been widely studied; the success of the few that did become economically sustainable, however, remains poorly understood. Using a sample of 70 farmers' cooperatives across the country and comparing three “extreme cases”—cooperatives that are both authentic and economically successful—with the rest, this study argues that participation in alternative agrifood systems is the key to their success. In the Chinese context, smallholders are deeply integrated into the conventional agrifood system and have gained technology and market access through the mediation of private enterprises and public institutions, leaving little space for cooperatives. Only in alternative agrifood systems, which prioritize product quality and authenticity and value closer relationships between producers and consumers, do cooperatives, as a unique governance institution based on trust, have advantages. Our case analysis shows how cooperatives brought smallholders economic gains and achieved economic sustainability through shifting to ecologically sustainable farming and building alternative distributive networks. This finding adds a new dimension to our understanding of the relationship between smallholder cooperatives and sustainable development: in capitalist agrifood systems, ecologically sustainable agrifood alternatives provide the basis for cooperatives' social and economic sustainability.

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Alternative agrifood systems and the economic sustainability of farmers' cooperatives: The Chinese experience

Hu,

Zhang

2024

Sustainable Development

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Cooperative membership and farmers’ environment-friendly practices: Evidence from Fujian, China

Yu,

Nilsson,

et al. 2023

Heliyon

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Promoting agricultural sustainable development by a novel integrated pythagorean neutrosophic and WINGS-BWM model

Zhang,

Chen

2024

Sci Rep

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This paper identifies nine factors affecting agricultural sustainable development by reading extensive literature and invites five experts to assess these factors using the pythagorean neutrosophic linguistic variable. Some of these factors can directly reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture, improve soil health, and promote biodiversity, while others can indirectly integrate to support the adoption of sustainable practices, further mitigating environmental degradation. Collectively, these factors reinforce ecological balance and play a critical role in advancing agricultural sustainable development. To unravel the complex relationships among these factors, a novel decision theory model is proposed, integrating pythagorean neutrosophic set (PNS) with Weighted Influence Nonlinear Specification System (WINGS) and Best-Worst Method (BWM). In addition, we not only categorized all factors into cause-and-effect factors, but also constructed a network relationship diagram based on them. The study shows that agricultural modernization (Y6) is the most important factor and land remediation (Y2) is the most influential factor. This integrated approach can more effectively address the common challenges of uncertainty and linguistic ambiguity in decision-making scenarios. Combining PNS with WINGS helps make the interactions and importance of factors more apparent, which is particularly suitable for analyzing key factors that promote agricultural sustainability. The incorporation of BWM further ensures the model’s accuracy and objectivity. This method provides a more comprehensive and accurate reflection of decision-makers’ opinions and judgments, improving decision-making efficiency, and can be widely applied not only in agriculture but also to other decision-making problems.

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The role of farmer cooperatives in promoting environmentally sustainable agricultural development in China: A review

Cited by 5 publications

References 67 publications

Alternative agrifood systems and the economic sustainability of farmers' cooperatives: The Chinese experience

Alternative agrifood systems and the economic sustainability of farmers' cooperatives: The Chinese experience

Cooperative membership and farmers’ environment-friendly practices: Evidence from Fujian, China

Promoting agricultural sustainable development by a novel integrated pythagorean neutrosophic and WINGS-BWM model

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