Cooperatives, economic democratization and rural development / edited by Jos Bijman, Roldan Muradian, Jur Schuurman.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The changing nature of farmer collective action: introduction to the book / Jos Bijman -- The progressive participation of rural producer organizations in the policy debate: lessons from the experience of West Africa / Denis Pesche and Bruno Losch -- Cooperatives in rural development and poverty alleviation / Markus Hanisch -- Smallholder organization through farmer (producer) companies for modern markets: experiences of Sri Lanka and India / Sukhpal Singh -- Markets access and agricultural productivity growth in developed countries: challenges and opportunities for producer organizations / Bekele Shiferaw, Jon Hellin and Geoffrey Muricho -- Social capital and agricultural cooperatives: experimental evidence from Ethiopia / Annemarie Groot Kormelinck [and 3 others] -- Towards inclusive rural development? effects of governance on economic equality in Uganda's coffee cooperatives / Karin Wedig -- 'Informal virtues' and 'formal vices'? understanding the implications of producer organizations for pastoralists in India / Stefano Pascucci and Jessica Duncan -- Centralized versus individual: governance of farmer professional cooperatives in China / Xiangping Jia, Yamei Hu and George Hendrikse -- Smallholder dairy entities in East Africa: challenges and opportunities / David J. O'Brien and Michael L. Cook -- Growth, democracy and income equality: cooperatives, the development impact beyond membership benefits / Kees Blokland and Jur Schuurman -- Transformation, inclusiveness and tensions of cooperatives: synthesis and further research / Jos Bijman, Roldan Muradian and Jur Schuurman.

Agricultural cooperatives and producer organizations are institutional innovations which have the potential to reduce poverty and improve food security. This book presents a raft of international case studies, from developing and transition countries, to analyse the internal and external challenges that these complex organizations face and the solutions that they have developed. The contributors provide an increased understanding of the transformation of traditional community organizations into modern farmer-owned businesses. They cover issues including: the impact on rural development and inclusiveness, the role of social capital, formal versus informal organizations, democratic participation and member relations, and their role in value chains. Students and scholars will find the book's mutlidisciplinary approach useful in their research. It will also be of interest to policy-makers seeking to understand the wide diversity of organizational forms and functions. NGOs, donors and governments seeking to support rural developments will benefit from the discussions raised in this book. -- from back cover.