AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION AS AN INNOVATION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate agricultural territories and their impact on agricultural cooperatives. In this case, the cooperative acts as a mechanism for rural development. The defining feature is that the mechanism of integrated development of rural territory to provide a comprehensive solution to the problems of the economy of the area and settlement, the formation and increase of investment attractiveness of the territory of the rural settlement and the creation of a “working” climate for private business are agricultural cooperatives. Analyzing the state of cooperation in the context of the European integration tendencies, which currently permeate the agrarian sector of the Ukrainian economy, studying the experience of cooperation among farmers of the European countries can be useful both from the point of view of its adaptation to domestic realities, and from the point of view of the most significant mistakes in development and miscalculations in rural areas. In addition, marketing studies have been conducted in rural areas of Ukraine, which have revealed the most significant areas of rural settlement development, including the creation and development of enterprises of meat, construction, tourism and recreational clusters and the development of joint ventures as growth points that activate the development of small and medium-sized businesses around them and the formation of interregional ties and rural cooperatives. Methods. Creating an agricultural consumer supply cooperative is the most effective mechanism for developing identified growth points and creating infrastructure to support them in rural Ukraine. The basis for the construction of an agricultural cooperative in rural areas is the formation of a model of maximum cost reduction for all members of the cooperative. Results. The further development and effective management of the cooperatives will contribute to solving socio-economic problems, improving the well-being of the peasants and, as a consequence, ensuring the integrated development of rural areas. Value/originality. Analyzing the activities of agricultural cooperatives operating in the world, we point out that research on the institutional foundations of the cooperative and its functioning as a mechanism of economic self-regulation give reason to claim that the cooperative does not have sufficient state support for its development. As a consequence, the number of cooperatives is steadily decreasing, we believe that the cooperative system of interaction of economic agents in the agricultural sector should include nationwide programmatic measures on institutional adaptation of cooperation as a mechanism of market self-regulation, a special form of integration, institutional mechanism for regulating entrepreneurship and the basis of cooperation, rules, traditions, organizations and institutions, the task of which is to determine the behavior of economic entities for the sake of satisfaction individual and social goals in the system of production and exchange of goods and services.