Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
12-2024
Abstract
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.
Keywords
alternative food networks, China, cooperatives, smallholder agriculture, sustainable agrifood system, vertical integration
Discipline
Agribusiness | Agricultural and Resource Economics | Asian Studies
Research Areas
Sociology
Publication
Sustainable Development
Volume
32
Issue
6
First Page
7447
Last Page
7460
ISSN
0968-0802
Identifier
10.1002/sd.3097
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
HU, Zhanping, & ZHANG, Qian Forrest.(2024). Alternative agrifood systems and the economic sustainability of farmers' cooperatives: The Chinese experience. Sustainable Development, 32(6), 7447-7460.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3961
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3097
Included in
Agribusiness Commons, Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons, Asian Studies Commons