Paper

Agricultural cooperatives and farm sustainability – A literature review

Candemir, Ahmet, Latruffe, Laure, Duvaleix, Sabine

2021

Overview

We present a literature review of the role played by agricultural cooperatives in influenc-ing farm sustainability. We first focus on the theoretical literature to highlight the various economicbehaviours of cooperatives. Then we investigate all three dimensions of sustainability in developingand developed countries. We aim at linking the empirical findings to the theoretical understandingof cooperatives, in particular members' heterogeneity. This paper shows that cooperatives playa non-negligible role in farm economic sustainability and in the adoption of environmentallyfriendly practices, suggesting that both public policies and private initiatives in cooperatives maybe complementary. As regards social sustainability, there are only a few studies existing on the roleof agricultural cooperatives. The trade-off between economic and environmental sustainability incooperatives would need to be further investigated.

• Publisher: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
• Subject: Agricultural cooperatives / Literature reviews / Sustainability