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The research also shows that a farmer cooperative is a dynamic institutional process and this constructing process influences the intermediation functions of FC. FC’s agency and capacities as a collective actor depends on the enrolment of the different actors in its projects, including FC leaders, members and external actors. The thesis argues that some new functions of FCs emerge from the need of agricultural and rural development at the local level, and have not gain enough attention and support from government policies. And FCs in China emerge and develop in a context of radical economic, technical and political changes. This has brought big challenges for FCs to development from grassroots level. Several policy implications are presented at the end of the thesis in order to further promote the development of FCs and make use of their intermediation functions to enhance agricultural and rural development in China.