The effects of farmer cooperatives on agricultural carbon emissions reduction: Evidence from rural China

Agricultural carbon emission reduction is an effective approach to achieve the dual carbon goals. Farmer cooperatives have widely been viewed as an important agricultural organization to enhance production scale and technological capabilities. This study aims to explore how farmer cooperatives influence agricultural carbon emissions, contributing to the achievement of dual carbon goals. Using Chinese county-level panel data during the period between 2013 and 2017, this study employs ordinary least-squares to examine the impact of farmer cooperatives, particularly regulated cooperatives, on agricultural carbon emissions. The results show that farmer cooperatives, particularly regulated cooperatives have significantly negative influence on agricultural carbon emissions and the effects are heterogeneous across the level of agricultural carbon emissions and the agricultural economy. Specifically, the farmer cooperatives effect tends to be bigger for regions with high-level agricultural carbon emissions and primary industry of high-level value-added. Additionally, mechanism analysis reveals that farmer cooperatives contribute to emission reduction by decreasing fertilizer input. These findings are crucial for promoting the development of farmer cooperatives, especially regulated ones, in achieving carbon peak and neutrality goals. This study fills a research gap in the role of agricultural cooperatives in carbon mitigation and offers a novel perspective for cooperative development and agriculture-based carbon mitigation strategies.