The Essence and Peculiarities of Cooperative Entrepreneurship in the Agricultural Sphere

In the conditions of insufficient use of the possibilities of cooperation in improving the efficiency of agricultural production, improving the food provision to the population through the development of cooperative entrepreneurship, research work was carried out to substantiate the essence of cooperative entrepreneurship, its features in the agricultural sector, develop recommendations for ensuring the development and effective functioning of cooperative forms of management on an entrepreneurial basis. The studies were carried out using monographic, abstract-logical, computational-constructive, economic-statistical methods. The information base for the study was official regulations, materials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan, official data from Rosstat and Tatarstanstat for 2015-2020, the results of the authors’ own observations and sociological surveys conducted in certain municipal districts of the Republic of Tatarstan. As the main results of the study, the substantiation of the essence and features of cooperative entrepreneurship in the agrarian sector is presented, the presence of a significant reserve for the development of agricultural cooperation through the involvement of non-cooperative peasant (farmer) households and households in cooperatives is revealed. Revealed: insufficient preparedness of managers and specialists of agricultural cooperatives in the organization of effective entrepreneurial activity; lack of financial resources for a significant part of the newly registered cooperatives to carry out full-fledged entrepreneurial activities; shortcomings in the current legislation on agricultural cooperation. It is proposed to deepen scientific research, improve the training and advanced training of cooperative personnel in the field of organizing effective business activities, intra-cooperative relations in compliance with cooperative principles; allocation of additional financial resources to support newly registered cooperatives; improvement of the current legislation in the field of agricultural cooperation, the introduction of statistical reporting on the results of the work of cooperatives