The Symposium, hosted by China Academy for Rural Development of Zhejiang University, Center for Cooperative Economic Studies of Rural Development Institute at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, School of Cooperatives at Qingdao Agricultural University, Comprehensive Research Institute of Tokyo University of Agriculture, Research Institute of Food, Agriculture and Aquatic Product Circulation, Japanese Society for Co-operative Studies, was held in Hangzhou on 20th and 21st September 2014.

Agricultural cooperatives have enjoyed a long history in the world. As a whole, their rapid development took place in some East Asian areas, e.g. Japan and Taiwan, but not so in the mainland of China. However, with economic and social advances in China, the cooperatives meet with a lot of challenges and many problems are worth studying, so this Symposium hopes to offer more feasible and effective practical theories for the further development of cooperatives.

The Symposium covers a range of topics from existing problems and practical experience, relating policy and legal adjustments, differences and reform expectations, developing trends in agricultural cooperatives in different countries in new contexts. Meanwhile, the experts conducted in-depth and enlightening discussions on divergent developments in China featured by comprehensive farmers’ professional cooperatives and those in Japan featured by the disintegration of comprehensive farmers’ association to strengthen professional functions, the variation and sustainability of Chinese farmers’ professional cooperatives, the amendment of “Law of the People's Republic of China on Farmers’ Professional Cooperatives”, new features and trends in the comprehensive administration of Japanese farmers’ associations.

The next Symposium will be co-sponsored by Kyushu University and Saga University, Japan in 2015.