Farmer Cooperatives and the Limits of Agricultural Reform in Rural Hubei

There has been remarkable growth in the number of cooperatives in China in the past decade. This article asks: what role are cooperatives playing in driving China’s ambitious agricultural reforms? The scholarly literature describes farmer cooperatives as either an important entity for progressing China’s rural modernization agenda, a vehicle of exploitation and dispossession of smallholder farmers, or evidence of broader commitment to grassroots solidarity. Despite the rapid expansion of farmer cooperatives, the role that they play in the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in places where agriculture remains central and out-migration is low is poorly understood. To explore this, in 2019 we conducted a survey of 266 households in the mountains of Hubei Province. To illuminate the politics and dynamics on the ground, we followed up by conducting in-depth interviews with agribusinesses, cooperatives, households, and local government officials. Our findings suggest that although cooperatives are attempting to engage with smallholders, they are neither integrating nor exploiting them. While seemingly innocuous to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, these entities serve a mostly political function, and it is in these dynamics that we observe the limits of agricultural reform. Where smallholder production is lucrative, land is valuable, and out-migration is minimal, local government appears to be “performing” reform, without forcing it on smallholders and thereby harming the local economy or risking social unrest.