Can ecological animal husbandry cooperatives become an effective organization to promote the transformation of herdsmen from "natural person" to "professional person?
Can ecological animal husbandry cooperatives become a way to promote herdsmen from effective Organization for the Transformation from "Natural Person" to "Professional Person?
-- Based on the Case Analysis of Qinghai Lagri Ecological Animal Husbandry Cooperative
yuan Peng Luo Qianfeng
presentation of 1. issues
it is a difficult point for herdsmen in grassland pastoral areas to comprehensively promote rural revitalization and realize the organic connection between small farmers and modern agricultural development. Herdsmen contract management has outstanding problems and challenges, such as the "small" of uneconomical scale, the "scattered" of natural division of labor within the family without participating in the socialized division of labor system, the "chaos" of blindly following and disorderly competition, and the "weak" of production and operation ability and market competitiveness.
Since 2008, Qinghai Province has been vigorously promoting the construction of ecological animal husbandry and comprehensively promoting the development of ecological animal husbandry cooperatives. Whether this development model is sustainable, whether it has the general significance of replication and promotion, there is controversy in the academic circles, which is directly related to the path choice of diversified and diversified agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics. Based on the typical case investigation of Qinghai ecological animal husbandry cooperatives, this paper tries to construct an analytical framework based on the relevant theories of institutional economics and agricultural modernization, with a view to expanding the theoretical exploration and empirical examples of the organic convergence path between small farmers and modern agricultural development.
2. research hypothesis
the organizational innovation of developing farmer cooperatives based on community collective resources is a kind of collective action. For the "collective irrational" behavior, the academic circles have formed three models with extensive influence, such as "the tragedy of the commons", "the prisoner's dilemma game" and "the logic of collective action. Among them, in view of the "tragedy of the commons" formed by the common use of public resources, there are two corresponding solutions given by the academic circles, one is to be owned by the state, and the other is a market-oriented plan. In this regard, Ostrom gave a different answer, proposed to build a "private characteristics" system and "public characteristics" system of hybrid.
This paper holds that by integrating and rationally allocating the production resources of its members, cooperatives promote the division of labor among members and realize the specialization of production, which is conducive to improving labor productivity and promoting the growth of output and wealth. With the deepening of the division of labor and the increasing remuneration, those "natural person" farmers who produce both agricultural products and industrial products are gradually transformed into professional farmers or professional workers under socialized mass production (Yang Xiaokai and Zhang Yongsheng, 2003). Based on this, the research hypothesis H1 is put forward: Ecological animal husbandry cooperatives promote the transformation of herdsmen from "natural person" under traditional production mode to "professional person" participating in modern socialized and specialized production ".
As a tool to enhance the market status of herdsmen, ecological animal husbandry cooperatives can achieve sustainable development only by obtaining market competitiveness higher than that of herdsmen's independent operation. Under the system where the market plays a decisive role in the allocation of resources, the competitiveness of cooperatives stems from saving market transaction costs, forming economies of scale and market bargaining power, and promoting the vertical integration of primary agricultural producers. finally meet the needs of industrial structure upgrading and consumption upgrading under high-quality development, all the development relying on preferential treatment by the government is unsustainable. Based on this, the research hypothesis H2 is put forward: the sustainable development of community production cooperatives stems from the endogenous market competitiveness of institutional arrangements, rather than relying entirely on the external support of the government.
Case Analysis of 3. Lagari Ecological Animal Husbandry Cooperative
the creation of ecological animal husbandry cooperatives under pilot (I). The herdsmen in Lageri Village have long been "only grazing is the foundation", and they regard migrant workers as "not doing their jobs". There are only more than ten migrant workers. After the population expands, overgrazing is serious, and the contradiction between grass and livestock is prominent. The traditional grassland animal husbandry development model is unsustainable. The herdsmen live in poverty. In 2011, Lageri Village was included in the pilot unit for the development of ecological animal husbandry cooperatives in Qinghai Pure Animal Husbandry Village, and the cooperative was established based on the fourth villagers' group. The first batch of herdsmen joined 36 households, 74 yaks, 6000 mu of summer pasture and 274700 yuan of bonus for herdsmen grassland. The cooperative unified production, operation and management according to a large family, the operating income mainly depends on the use of grassland awards and supplementary funds from members to carry out cordyceps trading. At that time, the market was good. At the end of the year, the cooperative paid a dividend of 210000 yuan, with an average household of more than 5800 yuan, which caused a sensation in the village. Herdsmen from other groups asked to join the cooperative one after another. In 2013, after serving as the first secretary of the county agriculture and animal husbandry director settled in the village, he proposed to learn from the "most advanced company shareholding model" to promote the shareholding cooperative system model of all employees and all assets in the village, and organized different groups of people to hold more than a dozen The symposium guided herdsmen to change their concepts and develop modern animal husbandry. By 2014, the rate of livestock and grassland entering the community reached 95.5 and 87.4 respectively. As of 2021, the village herdsmen basically joined the community.
Construction and improvement of (II) property rights system and governance mechanism. In response to the herdsmen's concern that the contracted pastures and livestock will be "collectivized" and "piled up" again, after hundreds of discussions and disputes among members over a year, the cooperative has worked out a set of detailed grading discount standards for pastures, cattle, sheep and livestock in accordance with the principle that the minority is subordinate to the majority. For example, when it comes to investing in pasture, respect for herdsmen who only recognize the traditional ruler to measure the actual area. At the same time, the cooperative stipulates that each person can only enter one cash share to prevent "unearned gains" and profit from capital.
Cooperatives build a multi-level common governance mechanism. Cooperative directors, supervisors, member representatives and ordinary members establish a "one-to-one" contact system to facilitate the smooth flow of social conditions and public opinion information. The cooperative has formulated salary standards, performance appraisal and rewards and punishments for directors, supervisors, management and production personnel, and has incorporated into its articles of association the provisions linking the completion of members' production indicators with grassland reward and subsidy funds and the quantification of government project funds to members' shares. While strengthening incentives and constraints, it has controlled the total labor cost, controlled the livestock carrying capacity of grasslands, promoted the improvement of seed yield and optimized the livestock structure. The cooperative also hired an accounting firm to unify the accounting and publish the income distribution plan and accept the supervision of its members.
The cooperative implements a contract responsibility system for members to compete for posts and groups (4-8 people). The remuneration of members implements a "basic salary + commission" system. The cooperative formulates a series of standards for material consumption and production management standards according to the production process, and directly links input and output with members' labor remuneration, thus effectively solving the problem of free-riding for members.
(III) explore the professional, standardized and socialized development of modern animal husbandry. The cooperative has specialized in the division of labor among its members, and has successively set up a grazing yak group, a grazing Tibetan sheep group, a secondary and tertiary industry development group and a labor export group. Animal husbandry production vigorously promotes specialized regional rotation grazing and standardized group breeding, introduces information-based quality traceability construction, actively develops the processing industry of primary products, uniformly carries out skills training for the liberated labor force, and guides them to develop individual businesses such as the distribution of livestock products and ethnic handicrafts, unified organization out of the contract to dig cordyceps business, contract engineering projects, such as odd jobs. By 2021, 1/3 of the village's labor force will be engaged in animal husbandry production, local non-agricultural employment and migrant workers, and more than 40 herdsmen families will move out and settle in cities and towns. Specialized division of labor has brought about fundamental changes in members' ideas and behaviors. Herdsmen have transformed from the relatively closed "natural person" form under traditional animal husbandry production to the "professional person" form under the socialized mass production, pursuing the maximization of economic benefits and keeping pace with the development of market economy. With the support of the government's "relocation" project, the herdsmen of Lageri Village have achieved centralized settlement, Xiali cars have replaced motorcycles as the means of transportation for most herdsmen to graze, and herdsmen have moved towards modern production methods, which can initially verify the research hypothesis H1 of this paper.
(IV) the construction of a benign interaction between the political and social relations. The government's institutional supply and top-down promotion can only be sustained through the bottom-up response of cooperative herders and transformed into an internal recognition of the new system and the formation of an endogenous development mechanism. In the early stage of the development of the cooperative, the government promptly guided the cooperative to develop an efficient breeding industry. Through phased and step-by-step policy support, 37 demonstration cooperatives in the county, including the Lageri Cooperative, provided variety introduction, grassland classification, and grass and livestock. A series of services such as balance, control of rodents, disaster prevention and mitigation, and organic production. Take forage promotion as an example. In the first year, grass is supplied free of charge. When herdsmen find that "the original forage is so good", the free supply in the second year is based on the premise of centralized feeding of cattle and sheep. In the third year, forage grass will be subsidized according to a certain proportion. In the fourth year, the government will not subsidize the production of forage grass. Instead, it will provide subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery. When the operation of cooperatives began to take shape, the government focused on strengthening risk prevention and control and external supervision, and carried out policy-based accidental death insurance services for cattle and sheep. At the same time, it required that the dividend plan of each cooperative should be approved by the township government, and the dividend level should not exceed the operating level, so as to prevent each other from "fishing out of the pond" or even loan dividends.
Cooperatives make effective use of the government's industrial poverty alleviation policy, industrial development policy and cooperative demonstration society policy to effectively transform policy opportunities into business opportunities. By mobilizing the majority of herdsmen to actively respond, and adjust business strategies in time according to market changes, gradually explore the endogenous development mechanism in line with their own production factor endowment. At the beginning of its establishment, the cooperative used the industrial poverty alleviation funds 1.3 million by the government and the 4.3 million's own funds to create characteristic hotels in the county seat, which solved the employment of some young people in the village. After the operation was not good, the cooperative sublet the hotel in time to obtain a stable income flow. In 2018, the cooperative used the whole village to move to the new community, and in accordance with the principle of one household, one share, one shop, mobilized all members to invest, and built a 6000 square meter facade at the entrance of the village. More than ten herdsmen have carried out self-management; and More than 80 sets of shops have been rented out to promote the increase of members' property income. In 2021, the cooperative will use the government's 1.4 million yuan industrial development fund to start the construction of livestock products slaughtering and processing line, so as to solve the biggest short board of cattle and sheep mainly relying on brokers. The cooperative also took advantage of the opportunity of the county to build an e-commerce demonstration county of the Ministry of Commerce, fully launched e-commerce sales, signed logistics contracts with a number of express delivery companies, and relied on the county animal products industry alliance to build a county public brand. According to preliminary estimates, the added value of products can be increased by about 10%. The cooperative has formed a market-oriented development road that continuously strengthens market competitiveness, this verifies the research hypothesis H2 of this paper.
4. Discussion: Why is Ecological Animal Husbandry Cooperative Effective?
(I) the effective institutional supply of the cooperative model of ecological animal husbandry. From the experience at home and abroad, there are generally three paths for the modernization transformation of traditional small farmers: the first is the road of self-evolution, that is, through long-term self-evolution and differentiation, the peasant household group stands out from the competition, and develops from the part-time household based on family livelihood into large-scale professional households; the second is the road of self-union cooperatives; the third is the road of corporatization relying on external capital. Ordinary herdsmen are restricted by human capital problems such as traditional conservative ideology, production skills relying on generation inheritance and low quality of labor force. They can only realize the balance of special types of animal husbandry production at a low level, and it is difficult to realize the modernization transformation by themselves. They need external thrust. However, there are only two leading enterprises of animal products processing above the scale in the county where the cooperative is located, and the number of herdsmen driven by them is limited, this provides a potential space for the government to implement the model of ecological animal husbandry production cooperatives to induce institutional change.
According to the theory of new institutional economics, the effectiveness of ecological animal husbandry cooperative system can be attributed to the establishment of an institutional framework composed of political structure, property right structure and social structure by local governments, in which the political structure defines the choice of people's system innovation, the property right structure determines the formal economic incentive, and the social structure composed of traditional customs and behavior norms determines the informal incentive in the economy.
(II) the superiority and defect of ecological animal husbandry cooperative system. The ecological animal husbandry cooperative takes the traditional community as the link and uses the community community culture established by the acquaintance society for a long time to reach a consensus action. At the same time, the community's common ethics have a certain binding force on the behavior of members. The cooperative system based on the community community has the superiority of belief and value identity. It is not only conducive to effective incentive, supervision and punishment of members, but also helps to prevent collective irrational behavior brought about by individual rationality.
However, the cooperative system also has serious institutional disadvantages, which is why it is difficult for community-based production cooperatives to become the mainstream mode in completely free market countries or developed market areas. First of all, and most importantly, the supply of social entrepreneurs is seriously insufficient. The essence of the market process lies in competition and entrepreneurship. The sustainable development of cooperatives needs the guidance of entrepreneurs with cooperative spirit. However, the initial stage of establishment of cooperatives can not attract entrepreneurs through price signals, which has great limitations. Secondly, compared with the flexible mechanism of the company system to allocate production factor resources effectively according to market price signals, the supply of production factors in cooperatives has hard constraints, and the allocation of resources is heavily dependent on the low level of self-supply within the community, thus affecting its market competitiveness. Third, the potential requirement of homogeneity of member groups is not conducive to cooperatives relying on market mergers, mergers and other forms of rapid expansion and development, but have to adopt a combination of self-accumulation and external borrowing, thus affecting the pace of transformation and upgrading of cooperatives.
(III) a revision of Ostrom's public pond theory. Ostrom's relationship between the community and the government emphasizes the independence of the community and puts the government's goal and the community's goal in a potentially conflicting relationship. North also believes that the presence of government is the key to economic growth and the root cause of man-made economic recession. However, as the world enters the post-industrial society, the new public service theory occupies the mainstream, believing that the role of the government is neither paddling nor steering, but providing services, which are based on the concept of public interest.
The institutional innovation of Lagerge cooperatives reflects the induced institutional change path led by a service-oriented government with Chinese characteristics, that is, the strong political determination of the central government is transformed into the political commitment of the local government, through extensive social mobilization, supplemented by active Financial support means have formed a large-scale promotion of the ecological animal husbandry cooperative model in the administrative area. Local governments focus their work on creating an innovative atmosphere, providing a series of public services for rural communities to achieve institutional innovation, effectively activating the endogenous driving force of herdsmen's innovation and entrepreneurship, realizing the incentive compatibility between government goals and herdsmen's goals, and solving the challenge of the lack of supply of social entrepreneurs faced by traditional herdsmen who are separated from the government and innovate alone, this amends Ostrom's emphasis on the principle that "the possessor of public resources has the right to design his own system and is not influenced by external government authority.
5. basic conclusions
the study found that under the guidance, support and service of local governments, ecological animal husbandry cooperatives established a governance mechanism for members to jointly manage community public resources and a member production incentive mechanism in the form of equal participation of members; ecological animal husbandry cooperatives complied with the requirements of modern animal husbandry development by building a professional, standardized, socialized and green production and management system, become an effective organization to promote the transformation of herdsmen from "natural person" to "professional person" participating in the socialized division of labor. The normal operation of ecological animal husbandry cooperatives requires basic conditions such as the homogeneity of community members' resource endowments, the effective supply of localized social entrepreneurs, and the provision of serialized public service support by local governments, and the need to build a political structure that conforms to local reality. The institutional framework composed of property rights structure and social structure determines that the promotion and replication of ecological animal husbandry cooperatives represented by Lagari cooperatives is arduous and long-term.