The Place Of Agricultural Cooperatives In State Policies: Example Of The Thrace Region

Cooperatives are organizations which become more powerful especially with the incentives provided by the states in terms of bringing individuals together and directing them to more fruitful production methods and have a significant role in sustainable development today. Among these autonomous structures, especially agricultural cooperatives are one of the prominent actors included by states in their economic, social and political policies. Today, the relationship between the states and agricultural cooperatives is significant not only due to economic concerns but also in terms of providing a stable organizational structure to future generations. In this respect, having knowledge about the structure of agricultural cooperatives in the past and following the development of these structures is a priority to understand the basis of the relationship among the state, agricultural cooperatives and farmers engaged in agricultural production. Secondly, the role assigned to agricultural cooperatives through legal incentives and supports by the state in its actual agricultural policies as well as the state of agricultural cooperatives and farmers enable us to understand the current structural level of these organizations. Accordingly, examining the relationship between the farmers engaged in agricultural production in Thrace region with the agricultural cooperatives and links between the latter and the state will provide us with a regional example to analysis and interpret this process. It is aimed by this study to examine reflections of the agricultural cooperatives and farmers in state policies based on the outputs of the project titled “Determining the Level of Knowledge of the Farmers in Thrace Region for the Cooperative System and Raising Awareness” conducted to understand the relations between the agricultural cooperatives in Thrace Region and farmers of the same region.