Regional Experience in Supporting the Development of Agricultural Consumer Cooperation

Abstract

The development of agricultural consumer cooperation in Russia is one of the main tasks of national food security. The research objective was to analyze the current state of agricultural consumer cooperation in the Lipetsk region, Altai Territory, and the Republic of Tatarstan, as well as their development prospects The research featured agricultural consumer cooperatives and their market environment. It was based on empirical methods, analysis, synthesis, modeling, and abstraction. The paper introduces various patterns of formation and development of agricultural cooperation at the regional level. In the Lipetsk region, the number of agricultural consumer cooperatives was found to increase every year. The regional three-level system for managing the development of “region – district – settlement” cooperation proved to be very effective, as did the local cooperation development institutions. The Altai territory appeared to have implemented a pilot model of agricultural consumer cooperation. This model allows cattle farmers who received financial support from the Agrostartup to sell their products to a cooperative. In the Republic of Tatarstan, agricultural consumer cooperation is based on models that are specific for each area. The Lipetsk region appeared to be on the cutting edge of cooperation development. The three-level management they use coordinates the efforts of local authorities and regional governments in the chain “settlement – district – region”. This integrated approach provides an effective regional system of agricultural consumer cooperation in the Russian Federation.

Keywords

• cooperative
• small businesses
• agriculture
• government support
• competence centers
• grants