STRUCTURAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS AND MODERN TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINIAN AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION

The influence of structural and organizational factors on the development of agricultural cooperation and the peculiarities of co-operation tendencies in Ukraine are highlighted. It is established that a structure that corresponds to seven cooperative principles, namely, voluntary and open membership, democratic control of members, participation of members in economic activity, autonomy and independence, education, professional training and information, partnership of cooperatives and community care, is considered to be a cooperative. The paper presents a comparative estimation of domestic and foreign experience of cooperation in the agro-food system of foreign countries and in our state based on the analysis of the structural policy, as well as dynamics of structural changes in the mechanism of transforming service cooperatives in the domestic economy. It is substantiated that cooperation as a model of organization of the socioeconomic process is globally recognized; however, in our country the process of its implementation is restrained by a number of structural and organizational factors, as well as the presence of negative social memory about the collective forms of management organization. In particular, the author puts emphasis on the lack of small farmers’ trust in cooperatives as structures of mutual assistance for small forms of entrepreneurship, family farming and private owner-operated farms. The tendencies of state support of agricultural co-operation in Ukraine as well as the influence of its availability on the dynamics of cooperative structures are characterized. Conclusions as well as conceptual and evaluation proposals on the improvement of certain elements of the structural policy in encouraging the cooperative processes as a priority in ensuring the sustainable development of the agrarian sector of the economy are made