Farmers as potential participants of agrarian cooperation
The basic condition of cooperation development in the agricultural sphere of economics is, firstly, the willingness of real and potential participants (primarily farms) to work together at various stages of technological process, and secondly, the terms and characteristics of their performance. As demonstrated by the statistics, many independent (usually small) producers, hereinafter referred to as the farmers were unable to compete functioning in a given organizational form and ceased to activity in the face of substantial monopoly power processors, producers and other counterparties on agrarian markets. Special problems faced by farmers of the Kurgan region (like all Russian farmers) at the stage of produced products marketing. As a result, operating currently family farms are far from homogeneous in production and financial results. For example, among them (apart from the small and economically weak farms) there are units which successfully compete with the best agricultural enterprises. Typically, these farms have successfully adapted to market conditions through the development of various activities, the cultivation of long-term strategies, the systematic improvement of production organization and competent management. It should be noted, however, that new social connections and relationships (that make up an important part of social capital and which are an essential prerequisite of the effective functioning of farms) are created slowly and inconsistently, preventing dynamic updating of production. The lack of formal and informal cooperation among family farms significantly complicates the farm activities. Above all it means the lack of agricultural cooperatives that tend to provide the production by modern equipment, to ensure all necessary resources on favorable terms, to facilitate the diversification of farming activities as horizontally (introducing new manufacturing) and vertically (integrating into adjacent stages of technological chains). Characteristics of family farms as participants of cooperation are essential.