Based on materials from the About Russia blog
The congress "Agricultural cooperation - the basis for the sustainable development of small forms of farming in the countryside" was held in Moscow on January 26. The event was organized by cooperative associations of the national level with the support of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian Food Policy and Nature Management. The congress was timed to coincide with the International Livestock Exhibition AGROS-2022, and delegates from 71 regions of the country arrived at it. The organizers of the event tried to give it significance, but the result was still the same. We talked and parted ways.
From this congress, as well as from the previous eight, the result will be minimal. Why do I think so? Let's see what happened at this congress. The speakers spoke about the stable development of agriculture in the country; that little attention is paid to the development of cooperatives. What the delegates see as this inattention - in the low support of cooperatives by the state, in the poor interaction of cooperatives with the main suppliers of resources for the agro-industrial complex.
The whole discussion came down to grievances against the authorities and large oligarchic business, which interferes with work. There were many bright speeches in which it was said that there were not enough benefits for cooperatives, and so on. In the final part, they even adopted a resolution where they asked the President and the government to develop and approve the national project "Development of agricultural cooperation." Like this. There are national projects “Culture”, “Healthy Lifestyle”, let's also have a national project for the development of cooperation.
I think that everything today revolves around the fact that cooperatives need to be helped. How can you help something that practically does not exist? Russia today occupies one of the last places in the world in terms of the development of agricultural cooperation. The law on cooperatives has been in force in the country for a quarter of a century, the President makes calls for development, but the situation does not change. In Russia in 2021, there are only 6 thousand cooperatives, which for such a country is a drop in the ocean. Today, small cooperatives are supported, which cannot even use the existing benefits. Most agricultural producers do not want to join cooperatives.
I will try to answer the question, why is this happening to us? All those who care about the development of the cooperative movement must understand one thing: it is necessary to change the thinking in the approach to the cooperative movement. Today, it is necessary not to oppose cooperatives to large holdings, large processors, large retailers, but to create cooperation with them. Then the issues of public-private partnership will bring out small producers, i.e. their associations - cooperatives to another level of work.
It is also necessary to revise the tax base in terms of double taxation of farmers and cooperatives. The farmer himself pays taxes, and the cooperative, in which he is a member, pays the same taxes. That's what's happening today.
Why don't farmers join the cooperative? I explain. By law, a cooperative is a kind of collective farm, and the farmer, who was a collective farmer not very long ago, does not want to go there again, he wants to be independent. Farmers will unite as collective farms, I think, in five generations. Here you have the indivisible fund of the cooperative, which is determined by law. For the same reason, large interested players in the food market will not join with small farmers.
Today, in conversations about the development of cooperation, all the accents of assistance are concentrated on the individual farmer, and not on the cooperative. If the cooperative wants to buy a large batch of elite seeds, then this agricultural entity will not receive a subsidy from the state, but a small farmer will. That is why suppliers of all types of supplies to the agro-industrial complex are reluctant to contact cooperatives.
For the development of the cooperative movement, we need not a national project, which will not be, but a reboot of approaches to the creation, composition, and functioning of cooperatives. In this case, public money will be allocated for specific purposes, the result of which is visible and tangible. In this case, cooperatives will not have to compete with big business, but to go together. Only by changing the approach to the cooperative movement will the village be preserved, with much-needed infrastructure and human resources. Only with this approach to cooperatives will the state receive strong support in stabilizing food prices.
What is needed is not slogans and requests for money, not a nod to the Soviet past, but new ideas, approaches and the development of cooperation in modern conditions.