The role of agricultural co-ops in driving change supporting the climate challenge

农业合作社在推动变革、应对气候挑战方面的作用

• 批准号: 2779657
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Dundee
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2779657
• 关键词: role; agricultural; co; ops; driving

The focus of this project is researching the role agricultural co-ops (member-owned organizations) play in driving change in their networks with a focus on helping their farmer members address the climate challenge. Education and effective knowledge transfer are a key pillar and one of the seven principles of co-operation in co-op enterprises. SAOS believe addressing the climate emergency is too large a challenge for any one business to tackle alone, especially SMEs. And that Scotland's strong agricultural co-ops can be an effective solution to coordinating meaningful change whilst remaining competitive via highly effective co-op farmer member networks. The co-op model presents a huge opportunity to support farmers address barriers such as limited time and capital, technical change, and information asymmetries. Action to deliver both economic and environmental gains become progressively more difficult as the industry advances through 'easy wins' and lower cost solutions. This highlights the value of a more collaborative approach between farmers, to support for example, the adoption and development of new technology or commitment to more capital-intensive investments. Arguably one of the key roles co-ops provide is the leadership to facilitate and actualize change. For example, the investment by Aberdeen Grain in large-scale biomass driers to decarbon the drying of malting barley grain. That said, the co-op business model is not well understood in Scotland or the wider UK, despite their long history as a business model, founded in the principles of mutual support, democracy and shared economic benefits. Apart from the commercial returns from being a member, co-ops seek to build social capital and enhance skills that can be vital in building resilience and strengthening rural communities, whilst remaining competitive.

该项目的重点是研究农业合作社（成员所有的组织）在推动其网络变革方面所发挥的作用，重点是帮助其农民成员应对气候挑战。教育和有效的知识转移是合作社企业合作的关键支柱和七项原则之一。 SAOS 认为，应对气候紧急情况对于任何一家企业来说都是一项巨大的挑战，无法单独应对，尤其是中小企业。苏格兰强大的农业合作社可以成为协调有意义的变革的有效解决方案，同时通过高效的合作社农民成员网络保持竞争力。 合作社模式提供了一个巨大的机会，可以帮助农民解决时间和资金有限、技术变革和信息不对称等障碍。随着行业通过“轻松获胜”和更低成本的解决方案取得进步，实现经济和环境收益的行动变得越来越困难。这凸显了农民之间采取更具协作性的方法的价值，例如支持新技术的采用和开发或致力于资本密集型投资。可以说，合作社提供的关键作用之一是领导促进和实现变革。例如，Aberdeen Grain 投资大型生物质干燥机，以减少啤酒大麦谷物干燥过程中的碳排放。也就是说，合作社商业模式在苏格兰或整个英国并没有得到很好的理解，尽管它们作为一种商业模式有着悠久的历史，建立在相互支持、民主和共享经济利益的原则之上。除了成为会员带来的商业回报外，合作社还寻求建立社会资本和提高技能，这对于增强抵御能力和加强农村社区至关重要，同时保持竞争力。