PROBLEMS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION: A MACROECONOMIC ASPECT

Abstract

Agricultural cooperation is an efficient mechanism of ensuring competitiveness of small and medium agricultural commodity producers under conditions of increasing competition on the domestic and world markets. The purpose of the study is to summarise scientific foundations of the formation of the cooperative movement and examine the applied aspects of the development of agricultural cooperation in Ukraine, efficiency of the government mechanisms of supporting the cooperative movement and prospects of its development. The following methods are used in the research: abstract-logical, economic-statistical and comperative analysis. The research is based on the studies of the domestic and foreign scientists on theoretical and practical issues of agricultural cooperation. The paper investigates theoretical and applied aspects of the problems of the development of agricultural cooperation in Ukraine at the macroeconomic level. It determines unsteady and contradictory dynamics of the development of agricultural cooperatives. It highlights that contradictions in legislative support for organization and functioning of cooperatives, a lack of purposeful and consistent government support, a low probability of involving financial resources and investments for the functioning and development of cooperatives restrain their development. The study emphasizes that the development of agricultural cooperation mainly occurs due to the assistance in cooperation of farms. It shows the advanced experience of the formation of cooperative associations with the participation of the leading agroholdings. The paper indicates to the role of legislation as the most powerful instrument of the government impact on cooperative relationships in the agrarian sector. It substantiates the prospects for further efficient development of cooperation caused by the Law of Ukraine “About agricultural cooperation” № 819-IX, extension of the government support for creating and developning the existing agricultural cooperatives and assisting in farm cooperation and creating new cooperatives by increasing the amount and optimizing the structure of financing, diversifying the sources of financing and their rational combination, coordinating the types of agricultural activities between the existing cooperatives in a given territory.