Agricultural Cooperatives: Finding Strength in Numbers

Tschopp, Maurice; Jaquet, Stephanie; Jacobi, Johanna; Douangphachanh, Maliphone; Bieri, Sabin (2020). Agricultural Cooperatives: Finding Strength in Numbers (CDE Policy Brief 16). Bern, Switzerland: Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern

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Smallholder farmers grow a major share of the food consumed around the world and preserve rich, biodiverse landscapes. But despite their fundamental importance, many small farmers lead lives of deepening vulnerability – caught between subsistence strategies threatened by ecological degradation and commercial food systems that devalue them as cheap labour. Alternative agricultural models are urgently needed. One long-running movement still shows major untapped potential: that of agricultural cooperatives. These can enable smaller food producers to band together and access markets without losing control of their land, livelihoods, or food sovereignty. Cooperatives have been expanded in various developing countries where smallholders face diverse pressures, including from international markets. Today, about a billion people are involved in cooperatives – many of them successful agricultural businesses combining values and principles of fairness and ecological sustainability. But more must be done.

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