The Future of Agriculture: Obstacles and Improvement Measures for Chinese Cooperatives to Achieve Sustainable Development

Abstract

The Chinese government pays close attention to sustainable development and takes an active approach to strengthening and standardizing such development. As the organizational vehicle for China’s large population, cooperatives can organize 230 million small farmers to promote sustainable development. However, some scholars have raised concerns about Chinese cooperatives and questioned their role in promoting sustainable development. Based on a review of China’s government support policy, this study summarizes the development characteristics of nine cooperatives and summarizes issues from opposite aspects. Furthermore, this study also analyzes the basic situation of the Chinese government’s quality improvement pilot county initiative and draws conclusions about the best ways to achieve sustainable development. We also make some policy proposals on achieving the sustainable development of Chinese cooperatives.