Lesson 3: Urgent requirements for linking production and product consumption
Value chain linkage in agricultural production is a form of closed chain linkage from production to purchasing, processing and consumption of agricultural products. To promote linkages in agricultural production, the State has had support policies. However, the current need for this support of cooperatives in Nghe An is extremely large and in reality, resources have not been able to meet it.
The 13th National Party Congress determined: "Closely linking agriculture with industry and services; production with preservation, processing, consumption, brand building, and increasing the value of agricultural products in value chains"; The State has also had policies to support the development of production linked to value chains, enhancing and synchronously implementing the linkage relationship between many "houses": the State, farmers, businesses, banks, scientists, distributors... with the focus on promotingpromote the role of farmers as the main subject.
According to preliminary statistics, there are 225 cooperatives inNghe AnThere are links in the consumption of agricultural products; many new cooperative models have appeared, linking production, processing and consumption of products, with labels and traceability, forming a value chain from production to consumption.
However, currently, agricultural cooperatives in the province are facing many difficulties. Many cooperatives are young, most of them were established since the implementation of the National Target Program on New Rural Development. Limited capacity, while to be able to carry out the linkage well, requires cooperatives to have a certain development, understand the breadth of the market, evaluate "customers", advise farmers... Besides, each cooperative needs to have the consensus of its members to be able to implement.
CooperativesSafe agricultural products of Trung Son commune (Do Luong) is an example. Established at the end of 2020, the cooperative now has 17 members. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai - Director of the Safe Agricultural Products Cooperative of Trung Son commune: In the land area of the cooperative, there are 8 hectares of land contracted from the commune, for a term of 5 years, to grow safe agricultural products. In addition, other member households participate in the production of safe vegetables and fruits, using organic fertilizers and biological products on their garden and field land, the cooperative provides input, product output and technical guidance.
In 2023, the cooperative opened more stores to trade, supply agricultural materials and consume agricultural products. However, the cooperative and its members participated in an extremely vague role, and the link to product consumption was still loose. Mainly, members only participated in the form of enjoying discounts on seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides if purchased at the cooperative's store. The remaining cooperatives had almost no significant activities, had not received loans, and did not have an effective operating plan. The products were small and fragmented, so they were only sold sparingly at the store.
“We have also contacted and brought vegetables, tubers, and fruits to large supermarkets in Vinh and Hanoi, but only for a short time and then stopped because the quantity of products was not enough. The cooperative has also proposed that the commune support the certification of VietGAP standards and safe vegetables, but this has not been met. We also really want to gather members and create a specialized area for producing safe, high-value vegetables, but for many reasons, we have not been able to mobilize people to join the cooperative,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai shared.
In general, in Do Luong district, due to lack of land, too few goods, not concentrated, most cooperatives have not been able to create links in product consumption, unable to meet customer requirements. Mr. Ho Quang Hai - Director of Lam Son Commune Agricultural Service Cooperative (Do Luong) said: "Most cooperatives. "Public land is little, people's land is small and fragmented, so it is extremely difficult to concentrate production. We only provide input services such as seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation regulation mainly".
The management apparatus of many cooperatives has not met the requirements of governance; there is a lack of dynamism in association, cooperation and seeking external resources. The number of strong cooperatives has increased but not much, only reaching 58.1%; the operation of many cooperatives, especially agricultural cooperatives, is still difficult, production and business efficiency is limited. Cooperative models linked according to value chains are generally small in scale...
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Mr. Nguyen Ba Chau - Chairman of Nghe An Province Cooperative Union
It must be recognized that the management, operation, production organization and market access capacity of the management staff in many cooperatives is still "old-fashioned", operations are still stagnant, many cooperatives have not developed a production organization plan to implement. Most agricultural cooperatives have poor and outdated technical facilities, manual production is common; there are no factories or warehouses, so products cannot meet the requirements of linkage; there is no office; and no land use right certificate has been granted.
Meanwhile, the resources to support cooperatives from the Provincial Cooperative Union are still small compared to the demand. Funding to support trade promotion and supply-demand connection for cooperatives is still limited and difficult to implement. The role of some officials in closely following the locality to advise, support and coordinate to resolve cooperatives' difficulties is not good. Party committees and authorities of some localities have not paid due attention to cooperatives.
The above reasons lead to the situation of linking product consumption of cooperatives still having many limitations. The activities of cooperatives in general have not changed much compared to before, most of them, especially agricultural service cooperatives, mainly provide input services but have not yet consumed output products for members, have not participated and demonstrated their role in the chain of activities linking, consuming products, connecting farmers with businesses. As the main subjects making OCOP products, the market search of many cooperatives is still passive, mostly relying on the cooperative director.
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In Yen Thanh district, there are 50 cooperatives, in which the successful cooperatives are basically those that have organized good linkages. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee: In the current conditions of small-scale, fragmented production with many potential risks, unlinked production is the cause of the situation of "good harvest, low price". And the situation of poor linkage has had consequences such as the situation of rice, vegetables, chili, papaya, banana, ginger, forestry seedlings... being stagnant and difficult to sell, which has occurred in recent years in the province.
In fact, cooperatives are facing many difficulties in linking well. The fields are fragmented, the number of households is large, farmers are still hesitant to apply new scientific and technical advances; while if they want to link, they must produce one variety, apply a unified production process, and have consensus from the whole village. Besides, agricultural product prices always fluctuate according to the market, while businesses, to be safe, often set prices from the beginning, leading to people easily breaking contracts when market prices rise while there are no strong enough measures to handle it. Many cooperatives do not have land, working capital is extremely limited, and they do not even have enough to be able to purchase necessary machinery and production equipment.
Although production linkage and product consumption at cooperatives still have many limitations, it must be recognized that they have created important premises for building long-term and effective linkages, contributing to raising awareness of production linkages according to value chains associated with product consumption. Linkages will gradually overcome the situation of spontaneous production, not according to market needs and requirements; help increase production value, create stable and long-term output.
In 2018, the Government issued Decree 98/2018/ND-CP on policies to encourage the development of cooperation and association in the production and consumption of agricultural products. Then, in 2022, the Government continued to issue Decision No. 80/2002/QD-TTg and Decision 62/2013/QD-TTg. These are truly "leverages" to promote economic development in agricultural production in general and association in particular, and now there is Decree No. 27/2022 of the Government...
In Nghe An, in 2018, the Provincial People's Council issued Resolution No. 13/2018/NQ-HDND on policies to encourage the development of cooperatives and linkages in production and consumption of products in Nghe An province. Since then, many effective production models have emerged, in which farming households join together to participate in cooperatives and cooperatives link with enterprises to form agricultural value chains. Currently, in the province, there are many agricultural service cooperatives that play a good role as "midwives", linking with enterprises to produce and consume products: Dien Lien and Dien Phong Cooperatives (Dien Chau); Tho Thanh, Minh Thanh and Lien Thanh Cooperatives (Yen Thanh)... Thanks to the linkage in agricultural production, crop productivity has increased, farmers have profits and are assured of production because of stable output.
In fact, the linkage between farmers, cooperatives and enterprises is the most effective chain production linkage model of cooperatives today. According to Mr. Phung Thanh Vinh - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, this linkage has brought practical benefits to producers, cooperatives as well as participating enterprises.
“In order to have stable consumption of agricultural products, it requires a large enough volume, concentration, stability, uniform quality, reasonable price and especially ensuring food safety and hygiene standards according to market requirements. Meeting those requirements is very difficult for each individual farming household, especially in preserving or pre-processing agricultural products. Therefore, the role of cooperatives in linking the implementation of stages from purchasing raw materials, production, harvesting, preservation, processing and consumption is a suitable solution” - Mr. Phung Thanh Vinh said.
People will be supported with capital, science and technology, improve their qualifications, create valuable products and gradually build product brands, increasing production value.
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Mr. Phung Thanh Vinh - Director of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
By participating in the chain, if acting as an intermediary, the cooperative will reduce the cost of input services, and agricultural products will be purchased stably. In fact, in Nghe An, there are many chains with the participation of cooperatives acting as intermediaries, which have brought high efficiency such as cooperatives producing safe vegetables, tubers, and fruits in Nam Dan, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau districts... Many cooperatives have even directly purchased, promoted products and directly sold to consumers.
For example, the Bac Que Sen Cooperative (Nam Dan), established in 2019 with 7 members and 22 associated households, after 5 years of operation, has increasingly expanded in scale with 46 participating households, each household grows 1 hectare of lotus or more, the total area ranges from 50 - 60 hectares, diversified products with 15 products, of which 11 products meet OCOP standards. The cooperative supplies seeds in the form of loans, supports technical processes for lotus care and harvesting.
According to Mr. Pham Kim Tien - Director of Sen Que Bac Cooperative: By participating in the association, people are given favorable conditions in terms of input services, have their products consumed at reasonable and preferential prices, and are oriented by the cooperative to the types of products that are popular in the market to focus on and prioritize production. A good organization of the association will bring better production efficiency, each member will be in charge and proactive in their family's production, strictly following the technical process, thus creating a good and concentrated source of products, meeting the processing needs of the cooperative"...
According to the current new regulations of the State (Decree No. 27/2022): Projects and models supporting production development according to the value chain under the national target program to receive support must ensure the following conditions: At least 50% of the participating people are the support subjects of the national target programs, in which priority is given to resources for implementing projects and models with over 70% of the participating people being poor households, near-poor households, newly escaped poverty households, ethnic minority households, people with revolutionary contributions, and women from poor households.
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(To be continued)
