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.

Achieving rural social sustainability requires both income growth and a reduction in rural income inequality. Strengthening farmland property rights is widely expected to contribute to these goals, yet the evidence remains limited. Building on a “property rights–factor allocation–income” framework, this study uses rural micro panel data from CHARLS (2011–2018) and combines two-way fixed effects with a chain multiple-mediation model to examine how farmland property rights strength (FPRS) relates to these outcomes. The results show the following: (i) FPRS has a dual total effect, raising household per capita income (0.683) while reducing the Gini coefficient ($-0.032$); (ii) effect decomposition indicates that the impacts are dominated by the direct effect, accounting for 96.47% and 98.37% of the total effects on per capita income and the Gini coefficient, respectively; (iii) the indirect transmission is structurally asymmetric, with income growth relying on seven “independent–chain” mediation paths involving land, labor, and capital, whereas inequality convergence operates only through farmland transfer-out and (iv) stronger property rights further reshape income composition by activating both agricultural and non-agricultural income through differentiated direct effects and mediated paths. This study identifies underlying mechanisms and offers policy implications for strengthening the direct effect of farmland property rights reform and improving factor allocation channels to achieve rural social sustainability outcomes.