Cooperatives' drivers of joint cropland management

PIÑEIRO; V.; MARTINEZ-GOMEZ, VICTOR; MELIA-MARTÍ, ELENA; GARCIA-ALVAREZ-COQUE, JOSE-MARIA

Congreso; 31st Virtual ICAE 2021; 2021

International Association of Agricultural Economists

In several Spanish regions, collective action through production and marketing cooperatives has traditionally concentrated the food supply of small and medium-sized farms. However, many cooperatives are threatened by the risk of abandonment of members´ cropland, which reduces their sourcing capacity. In this context, joint cropland management initiatives have become a useful form of social and organizational innovation. This research´s contribution is twofold: it examines the relevance of some drivers of this organizational innovation, and it determines the cooperative characteristics or combinations of characteristics that can sufficiently explain the adoption of a joint cropland management strategy. Some cooperatives´ features have been a priori identified as related to the achievement of joint cropland initiatives: economic size, social innovation, innovative behavior, and collaborative orientation. The study is mainly based on data from a cooperatives survey, and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) methodology has been used. Results indicate that social and economic innovation, size, and propensity to cooperate with other cooperatives are key factors that help create a cooperative profile capable of tackling the challenge of land abandonment and the consequent loss of Production.