نشریه تعاون و کشاورزی
سال دهم شماره 40 (زمستان 1400)

Cooperatives are one of the types of participatory management systems, which provide farmers with a role in decision-making and agricultural management by providing mechanisms. In this regard, water users' organizations are formed with the aim of reducing the role of government and increasing the role of water consumers and other local institutions in the management of irrigation networks and play a key role in optimal water consumption. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the factors affecting the performance of production cooperatives in the catchment area of Khuzestan with emphasis on the management of irrigation and drainage networks. The statistical population of the study consisted of all members of production cooperatives within the irrigation and drainage networks of Khuzestan (N = 5831). The sample size was determined using the sampling table of Bartlett et al. (2001) and by stratified random sampling method with proportional assignment (according to member production cooperatives), 361 people. The results of factor analysis indicate that the factors affecting the performance of production cooperatives in the catchment area of Khuzestan province include economic and financial, socio-cultural, legal-political, managerial and technical factors. The results of multi-criteria analysis using AHP technique also showed that the management criterion is the highest priority for the success of production cooperatives compared to other criteria. In fact, this finding shows that the prerequisite for the success of production cooperatives in Khuzestan is the improvement and empowerment of management structures in the areas of planning, organizing, coordinating, controlling, implementing and evaluating production cooperatives.

This study aimed to evaluate the Factors Affecting the Technical Efficiency of Agricultural Production Cooperatives in Golestan Province by using the data envelopment analysis method with a product-oriented approach and constant and variable returns to scale. The required data was obtained in the field and by completing a questionnaire and interviewing the managers of 36 agricultural production cooperatives active in Golestan province in 2020. To evaluate the technical efficiency, the Tobit regression model has also been used to investigate the factors affecting performance. The results show that the average technical efficiency of the surveyed cooperatives under the conditions of fixed returns and variable returns to the scale is almost equal; Therefore, agricultural production cooperatives in Golestan province are faced with a high level of scale efficiency. The results show that 69% of companies have fixed returns, 25% have descending returns and 6% have upward returns to the scale of production. The results of the study of factors affecting technical efficiency also indicate that the age variable has a negative and significant effect on performance. Also, the asset variable has a positive and significant effect on efficiency. The average values of technical and managerial efficiency show that it is possible to increase the output by 13% with the same amount of input. It is necessary to increase the efficiency of production cooperatives by supporting young people and using them in the field of production and providing the necessary funds for companies.

Despite the fact that student cooperatives are setup with the aim of promoting entrepreneurial competencies among students; however, due to not following the indigenous model, they have not been able to take appropriate action to promote entrepreneurial and business activities among students. In this way, the purpose of this study was to design a model for the extension of entrepreneurial activities in student’s cooperatives, for which the qualitative paradigm and grounded theory was used. The study participators consisted of all members of agricultural student cooperatives in the universities (Razi, Kurdistan, Bouali, Lorestan and Ilam universities) of the west of Iran. The studied samples were first selected purposefully and then theoretically. Theoretical saturation was obtained after 25 in-depth one-on-one interviews. In order to analyze the data, open, axial and selective coding was used. Findings showed that environmental support, social capital, psychological characteristics, human capital, economic motivations and role models as causal factors; Administrative bureaucracy, financial barriers, cultural barriers, structural barriers and environmental opportunities as underlying factors; and climate change, market fluctuations and environmental turbulence were identified as intervention factors that affect the extension of entrepreneurial activities in agricultural student cooperatives in the west of Iran. Strategies for promoting entrepreneurial activities in student cooperatives in the west of Iran included educational-extension, modeling, reducing administrative bureaucracy, support-motivation and financial facilities strategies, which ultimately resulted in entrepreneurial activities extension among agricultural students such as developing entrepreneurial competencies, development Social, agricultural development and economic development.

Rural cooperatives play an important role in increasing the cultural, social and economic partnerships of the rural population and by improving the provision of services in the field of providing basic necessities and livelihoods of farmers provide the basis for improving the income and employment of farmers. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of financial ratios on the profitability of 36 active rural cooperatives in Sistan and Baluchestan province in the period 2016-2019 using the GLS method. Findings show that the instantaneous ratio has a negative and significant effect on the company's profitability in the rural cooperative company, liquidity is low and the company should be managed in a recession and a sudden increase in the price of agricultural inputs and basic goods provide the conditions to receive their claims in the shortest possible time. The effect of current debt to equity ratio on profitability has been negative and significant due to the growth of short-term debt, which leads to a decrease in working capital of the company and thus reduces the company's profitability, while the ratio of total debt to equity has a positive effect. And has had a significant impact on the profitability of rural cooperatives That is, most of the company's capital is provided by shareholders and the cost of loan interest is reduced and the company's profitability increases. Finally the ratio of total asset turnover has a positive and significant effect on the profitability of rural cooperatives.

Today, with the stability of businesses in cooperatives, the problem of unemployment and bankruptcy of many cooperatives can be addressed. Providing a model of business sustainability is one of the effective factors in the success and sustainability of cooperatives. The aim of this study was to design a business sustainability model with an entrepreneurship development approach in the cooperative sector of Hamedan province. This research is quantitative-qualitative (mixed) in terms of applied-development purpose and research method and research framework. Participants in the quality section of some of the successful cooperative managers of the country and expert professors in the field of business in a purposefully available way based on theoretical saturation of 12 And in the quantitative part of the statistical population, 360 managers of all successful cooperatives in the country, whose participants were randomly selected based on Morgan and Krejcie table, 130 people. The results of qualitative analysis showed that this model included six categories including causal conditions, central category, contextual factors, intervening conditions, strategies and consequences, and 82 factors were identified as designing a business sustainability model with an entrepreneurial development approach. It was also found that the effect of causal conditions on the central category and the central category on the strategies is direct and the effect of strategies on the outcomes, contextual factors and intervening conditions on the strategies is indirect. In a small part, it was found that the model has a good fit

The aim of this research was to design and explain the organizational Intelligent model in Iranian production cooperatives. Based on its objective, this is an applied research while it is a mixed (Qualitative-quantitative) research in terms of the nature of its data. In this Regard, the aspects, components and indexes of the model in the qualitative section by interviewing 15 experts in order to confirm the theoretical sufficiency in a data-based method. Then, in a quantitative part and in a statistical outfit of 8361 people, including employees and managers of production cooperatives across the country, based on Cochran's formula, 350 people were selected by random- stratified sampling method based on the provincial cooperatives office to explain the model. The model was identified based on the aspects of intelligence empowers (causal factors), capabilities of organizational strategies (phenomenon-orientation), intelligence development context (backgrounds), intelligence governance (interventional), intelligence strategies (strategies), intelligence performance (consequences), along with 24 components. Then the relationship between the mentioned components were determined using Interpretive Structural Modelling method to design the model. The designed model was tested and explained by structural equation modelling method. Findings of the SEM shows that ther Dimension "Intelligent Development contexts" on "Intelligent enablers", "Intelligent enablers" on "Organizational Intelligence Capabilities", "Organizational Intelligence Capabilities", on "Intelligent Strategies", and "Intelligent Strategies" on "intelligence performance" has a significant and positive effect. The results indicate that a higher level of intelligent contexts and enablers can improve the performance of production cooperatives and highlight the importance of strategies.

This study was conducted to analyze the productivity of fishing cooperatives in Guilan province. In this research, the method of partial productivity analysis and total factors productivity and Tornqvist index was used and the data of this research were collected using a questionnaire from the level of fishing cooperatives for the fishing season of 2017. The results showed that in terms of partial productivity, on average, in all cooperatives, Astara county is in the lowest situation and Rasht county is in the highest position. In terms of total factor productivity, the highest rank is related to Rasht county with an average index of 1.511 and the lowest rank is related to Astara county with an average index of 0.133. In the whole province, 22 cooperatives equivalent to 44% of the cooperatives had total productivity of more than one, and 28 cooperatives equivalent to 56% of the cooperatives had total productivity of less than one. According to the findings, it is suggested that cost management be given more importance than increasing fishing and increasing revenue, and considering that Rasht cooperatives were superior to other parts of the province in terms of productivity, it seems that the centrality of this region and accessing more facilities to be effective in this issue. Therefore, it is suggested that more support be given to cooperatives in other cities to increase the possibility of productivity growth in them.