Title: The impact of agricultural cooperatives on the sustainable development of rural communities

Authors: Yuriy Petrushenko; Jiri Hejkrlik; Oksana Duvanova; Wojciech Duranowski; Tetiana Semenenko

Addresses: Department of International Economic Relations, Academic and Research Institute of Business, Economics and Management, Sumy State University (UA), 4007, Sumy, Ukraine ' Department of Economics and Development, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU), 165 00, Prague, Czech Republic ' Department of Financial Technologies and Entrepreneurship, Academic and Research Institute of Business, Economics and Management, Sumy State University (UA), 4007, Sumy, Ukraine ' The Faculty of Economics, Opole University (PL), 45-040, Opole, Poland ' Department of International Economic Relations, Academic and Research Institute of Business, Economics and Management, Sumy State University (UA), 4007, Sumy, Ukraine

Abstract: Today, decentralisation reform has been completed in Ukraine, and rural areas received resources for their development and became responsible for it. The study is based on the assumption that the effective mechanism for enhancing sustainable development of rural areas in Ukraine is to create agricultural cooperatives. They form an economic tool and a mechanism that positively affects the growth of communities' social capital and stimulates residents to develop the type of thinking focusing on sustainable development. An econometric model of the impact of the agricultural cooperative on local development was made to test this assumption. The study results proved the positive impact of agricultural cooperatives on sustainable development, which might be the basis for the formation of state, regional, and local policies to stimulate the establishment of agricultural cooperatives in rural communities of Ukraine. Results might be applied in the development of the cooperative movement in other countries.

Keywords: agricultural cooperative; sustainable development; economic cooperation; ecology; socio-economic development; rural community.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGENVI.2022.126198

International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 2022 Vol.21 No.2/3/4, pp.130 - 147

Received: 30 May 2021
Accepted: 11 Oct 2021
Published online: 14 Oct 2022 *

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