The Place of Agricultural Cooperatives in State Policies Example of The Thrace Region
Abstract
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.