Abstract:Germany is one of the birthplaces of cooperatives. Based on a two-week special survey of German cooperatives,this paper focuses on the adaptive characteristics,trend characteristics and social system background of German farmers’ cooperatives. It is found that the German farmers’ cooperatives have the following adaptability characteristics:complete hierarchical organization system,diversified and specialized industrial types,comprehensive and diversified service content,institutionalized daily operation system,regional stability of service and organic industrial development. It also has the trend characteristics of growing enterprise-orientation,decreasing absolute quantity,increasing scale strength,increasingly professional management team and diversified earnings distribution. Moreover,the farmer association system,perfect social security system,perfect social service system and good social credit system all over Germany constitute the “four rounds” to drive and guarantee the sustainable and healthy development of farmer cooperatives. Finally,the paper summarizes and analyzes the problems and challenges faced by the farmers’ cooperatives in China,such as the unsynchronized growth of quantity and quality,the increasing heterogeneity of members,the imperfection of supporting policies,the lack of service-oriented cooperatives,and the indefinite debate on attributes,and proposes to promote the quality of farmers’ cooperatives,create relaxing environment for the development of cooperatives and build China’s “ Four rounds” as a driving force for the development of farmers’ cooperatives to encourage in-depth Union and cooperation among farmers.