A Study On Member' Participation Degree And Its Influencing Factors Of Farmer Specialized Cooperatives In Poor Areas

Farmer specialized cooperatives can naturally benefit the poor and the leading effect of Famer specialized cooperatives to the poor farmers in the poor areas has always been afocus for theory researchers and policy makers.As a mutual aid organization,only in-depth participation in cooperative affairs can members gain their own income growth and improve their ability.Meanwhile,sustainable development of such cooperatives also needs participation of members.However,at present,Farmer specialized cooperatives do not havea very normative development,which would contribute to the low participation of the members,and affect the effectiveness of the cooperative.At current stage,most researches focus on theoretical analysis and empirical analysis on single dimensionon members' participation,while few studies have discussed such issue frommulti-dimension and multi-indicators and no study has drawn attention to members' participation degree in poor areas.Thus,in order to enhance the participation of the members in the poor areas and to exert the benefit of cooperatives and realize their sustainable development,based on the data of poor areas in Qinba Mountain area,Sichuan province,this paper profoundly discusses members' participation degree and its influencing factors of Farmer specialized cooperatives.Based on combing foreign and domestic literatures,cooperative theory,membership heterogeneity theory,farmer behavior theory and poverty theory,this paper makes a descriptive analysis on members' participation in the business,capital and management by using survey data of 408 members in 30 Farmer specialized cooperatives located in 12 poor counties,Qinba Mountain Area in Sichuan province.Then members' comprehensive participation are analyzed by applying factor analysis,and the influencing factors of members' participation are also empirically studied by using Tobit model.Research indicates:firstly,the quality of farmers' specialized cooperatives and its effect on poverty alleviation in poor areas of Sichuan province are poor.Secondly,there are differences in the participation degree of each dimension of membership.The participation degree of the member business is the highest,the management participation is second,the capital participation is lowest.Thirdly,the participation of members is not high,the comprehensive participation rate is more than 3/4 for ordinar and below levels.The degree of comprehensive participation of poor members is below average.Fourthly,the comprehensive participation degree of the members is influenced by the basic characteristics of the members,the characteristics of the members participating in the membership and the characteristics of the cooperatives.In particular,the more acceptable risk,the better the capital capital,the better the social capital,the more emphasis on agricultural production,the more dependent on the income of agricultural members to form a high degree of participation;the longer joined the cooperatives,the more inclined to access to services,the position in the cooperative,the contract with the cooperatives has signed a contract,and the more trustworthy members of the cooperatives and their managers are more likely to form a higher degree of participation.If the cooperative returns the surplus according to the amount of patronage,the participation of its members is higher.This paper puts forward the following suggestions:improve the institutional structure and governance mechanism of Farmers' Specialized Cooperatives in poor areas of Sichuan Province and enhance the participation;steadily push forward asset recovery poverty alleviation model of Farmer Specialized Cooperatives in poor areas in Sichuan Province and attach importance to and support the spontaneous poverty alleviation of Farmer Specialized Cooperatives;multi-sectoral joint support to solve the plight of Farmer Specialized Cooperativesin poor areas,and work together to promote agricultural industrial development in such areas.