Abstract:

With the strong development trend of domestic cigar production and consumption, the innovation and transformation of the organization mode of cigar tobacco leaf raw material production is an important issue to promote the high-quality and high-efficient supply of tobacco leaves. Based on the field research data of Shifang in Sichuan Province, this study examined the impact of cooperative membership on the economic benefits of cigar leaf cultivation from the perspective of farmers’ professional cooperatives. The results show that:（1）from the statistical results, cigar leaf planting unit yield and unit output value in the planting scale of (0.2, 0.267) hm² and (0, 0.133) hm² are respectively the highest; and (0, 0.133) hm² and (0.2, 0.267) hm² are the unit low-cost and unit high-income planting scale ranges for cigar leaf, respectively;（2）from the empirical results, joining cooperatives has a significant effect on increasing the unit yield of cigar leaf cultivation for farmers, and has a greater impact on low-income farmers; positive effects on increasing unit output value and unit income and decreasing unit cost are observed, but the effects are not significant. In summary, the participation of tobacco farmers in the production cooperatives is beneficial to promoting quality efficiency and ensuring the stable supply of tobacco leaves. All tobacco areas should give full play to the organizational advantages of cooperatives, optimize the organizational structure of production, and further regulate the development of cooperatives in tobacco industry, so that they can keep pace with the overall development of agricultural economy.

Key words: cooperatives, cigar leaf cultivation, economic benefits, unit yield, Shifang