The state in the whole world promotes the development of small and medium-sized businesses, seeing it as the key not only to economic but also political stability in the country. In recent years, the development of small and medium-sized businesses, including in the countryside, is given special attention, supports the development of cooperative processes between them. However, all efforts (organizational and financial) do not give a proper result - not all small and medium-sized enterprises are involved in agricultural cooperatives, the share of participation in output fluctuates at 5% even in the most successful regions in terms of cooperation. Agricultural cooperatives do not have the necessary sources for their development: public funds are not available to everyone, and credit resources also require a certain credit history and own sources of co-financing. The article analyzes the capital structure of Russia's largest and most successful dairy cooperatives, as well as international cooperatives. The author proposed a completely new concept of allocation of public support funds for the development of agricultural cooperatives, aimed at strengthening the role of existing and successful cooperatives.