Plantation-based farming cooperatives are important carriers to promote agricultural and rural modernization and increase farmers’ income. Their risk management is related not only to their own sustainable development but also to the practical interests of farmers. Based on the survey data of 226 sample cooperatives in Guizhou Province, this study measures the business risk of plantation-based farming cooperatives via factor analysis and empirically tests its influencing factors using a structural equation model. This research shows that there are different types of operational risks in plantation-based farming cooperatives, and the order of these risks is as follows: market risk (0.334) > policy risk (0.162) > natural risk (0.140) > technical risk (0.104) > management risk (0.097). In terms of the factors influencing business risk, the impact effect value of the economic environment is 0.522, making it the most important external interference factor. The technology environment and policy environment have a greater impact on business risk (effect values of 0.323 and 0.219, respectively). The effect of the social service environment (an effect value of 0.114) is relatively weak. The internal factor, operator characteristics, is the core factor (an effect value of 0.533) that affects the business risk of plantation-based farming cooperatives, which determines the development prospects of the cooperatives. Resource endowment is an important internal factor affecting the business risk of cooperatives (an effect value of 0.331). According to the conclusions of our research, some policy implications on how to promote the high-quality development of plantation-based farming cooperatives are presented, i.e., to refine the policy support for plantation-based farming cooperatives, optimize the economic environment of the agricultural market, further improve agricultural infrastructure, deepen the reform of the agricultural land transfer system, and improve the internal management level of cooperatives.

Plantation-based farmer cooperatives play an important role in promoting agricultural modernization and increasing farmer income, and the management of business risks of such cooperatives not only influences the development of the cooperatives themselves, but also concerns the interests of farmers. Based on the survey data of 226 sample cooperatives from Guizhou province, this article uses factor analysis to measure business risks of plantation-based farmer cooperatives and carries out empirical tests on influence factors of business risks through structural equation model. According to the research results, the ordering of business risks of plantation-based farmer cooperative based on their significance is as follows: market risk > policy risk > natural risk > technical risk > management risk. Influence factors including policy environment, economic environment, social service environment, technical environment, resource endowment of the cooperative and manager characteristics have significant positive influence on the cooperative, with economic environment and manager characteristics generating relatively stronger influence and social service environment generating relatively weaker influence. Through this research, several policy implications on driving high-quality development of plantation-based farmer cooperative are made, including specifying supportive policies of plantation-based farmer cooperative, improving economic environment of agricultural market, upgrading agricultural infrastructure, depending reform of land transfer system, and enhancing internal management of the cooperative.