Given the relevance of producer cooperatives in policy debates around rural development, agricultural sustainability and inclusive business, there is surprisingly little information on whether these cooperatives are inclusive of smallholders. This paper reviews conceptual discussions and empirical evidence on the notion of a producer cooperative as an inclusive business. Three organisational characteristics may affect the inclusiveness of producer cooperatives: community-orientation versus market-orientation; open versus closed membership; who is represented in the governance of the cooperative. When cooperatives evolve from community-orientation towards market-orientation, they are likely to become less inclusive.

考虑到生产合作社在有关农村发展，农业可持续性和包容性商业的政策辩论中的相关性，令人惊讶的是，几乎没有关于这些合作社是否包括小农在内的信息。本文回顾了关于生产者合作社作为包容性企业的概念的概念性讨论和经验证据。三个组织特征可能会影响生产者合作社的包容性：以社区为导向与以市场为导向；开放会员与封闭会员；在合作社治理中代表谁。当合作社从社区导向向市场导向发展时，它们的包容性可能会降低。