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Optimizing the Agricultural Value Chain through Cooperation - Empirical Policy Advice for Bavaria
Project
Project code: A/15/26, 5699
Contract period: 01.07.2015
- 31.12.2019
Budget: 487,862 Euro
Purpose of research: Basic research
Cooperation is an appropriate instrument for every farmer to strengthen operations and improve the value chain, irrespective of its design - horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. Cooperation supports the optimizing of costs and labor time. Success is most likely if cooperation reaches beyond the collaboration of colleagues within the same value chain by including down- and upstream companies of the same region. Particularly in Bavaria, cooperation amongst the high number of small agricultural and rural family businesses affords the opportunity for maintaining competitiveness in production and marketing, and hence retaining income within the region. Regardless of the potential advantages of cooperation, different concerns still keep farmers from collaborating with competitors and affiliates. The high levels of efficiency, productivity and cooperation form an essential aspect of improving their economic capability and standing within the value chain. Both the technical literature (lack of empirical work on this topic) and operational experience fail in providing a suitable approach on how to measure the success of cooperation. This research project focuses on the following aspects: Relevance and stability of cooperation within agriculture; Motivation of partners for cooperation; Parameters for the collective success of cooperation and their design; Economic effects of different cooperation models; Perception of the cooperation model´s success by its members; Actions taken by the affiliates and their effects on the success of the cooperation model and the dependence of the partners´ standing within the value chain; Experiences with cooperation in neighboring European states; Benefits and options of how to promote cooperative behavior; Design and combinations of state actions for increasing the probability of cooperation and its stability; Contribution of the Bavarian Agrarwirtschaftsgesetz [agricultural economic legislation] in promoting cooperative collaboration.
Section overview
Subjects
- Agroeconomics