The effectiveness of the association of cooperatives in Yen Thanh

Link efficiency

Not only does the linkage in rice seed and commercial rice production bring higher value to farmers, but unlike many other cooperatives, Quyet Tien Agricultural Cooperative (Cong Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district) has a complete system of warehouses, drying, processing, packaging and preserving agricultural products.
After the failure of the old cooperative, in 2019, right after its establishment, struggling to find a direction, Mr. Bui Van Ho - Director of the cooperative commented: The most important thing is to have a stable material base, from there creating trust, attracting businesses into sustainable links.

With the efforts of ourselves and the cooperation of partners, a system of 3 drying kilns with a capacity of 60 tons/day and night, a warehouse with a maximum capacity of 1,000 tons was invested in construction, with a total cost of nearly 4 billion VND. "Not only does it help attract businesses to join the association, but agricultural products can also be preserved longer during periods when they cannot be consumed. Currently, some partners have come to discuss the issue of drying wood and dried bamboo shoots. During the summer-autumn harvest, if local people have a need, the cooperative can also dry rice for them" - Mr. Bui Van Ho shared.

Link between farmers and cooperatives in Lien Thanh commune (Yen Thanh). Photo: Thai Duong

Participating in joint production through the Cooperative, Mr. Le Minh Luan - Hamlet 9, Cong Thanh Commune, was supported with seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and especially the Cooperative purchased a pump to pump water from the source to irrigate the rice. "The family has 8 sao of rice fields, only 1 sao in another area cannot participate in the joint production, the remaining 7 sao are guaranteed to consume products 20% higher than the market price at the same time, the profit also increased by about 20% compared to before" - Mr. Luan excitedly.

With 90 members, not only does Quyet Tien Agricultural Cooperative cooperate in producing, drying and packaging 100 hectares of rice seeds, but it also cooperates with 6 other communes inside and outside the district to produce 7,000 - 8,000 tons of commercial rice per year for processing, packaging, and linking with Thanh Do Company to purchase products.

Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee - Mr. Nguyen Van Duong said: We have focused all resources, directed the entire political system to support the development of cooperatives, in which in 2016 we focused on orienting and converting agricultural cooperatives according to the 2012 Law on Cooperatives; in the following years, we will continue to support agricultural cooperatives to expand service types, transfer science and technology, attract agricultural enterprises to invest in joint ventures and link up in product chains, build brands for some local products with advantages such as Yen Thanh rice, Vinh oranges, Trang Ke honey, Yen Thanh wild chickens... Thanks to that, many cooperatives have increased in scale, fields and improved operational efficiency.

Investing in mechanized rice harvesting in Nhan Thanh commune (Yen Thanh). Photo: Thai Duong

Up to now, in Yen Thanh district, there are 48 agricultural cooperatives, an increase of 15 cooperatives compared to 2015, all 38/38 communes have agricultural cooperatives; nearly 15,000 members participate, charter capital reaches over 24 billion VND. Notably, in addition to agricultural services, input supply, cooperatives have expanded, focusing on developing many new, highly effective industries such as animal feed services, environment, market management, clean water supply, internal credit...

In particular, many cooperatives such as Bao Thanh Agricultural Cooperative and Quyet Tien Agricultural Cooperative have applied high technology in production such as growing vegetables in greenhouses; Minh Thanh Agricultural Service and Construction Cooperative has applied drip irrigation for fruit trees of cooperative members; some cooperatives have applied mechanization in production such as agricultural product drying ovens, especially Tho Thanh Agricultural and Rural Development Cooperative has provided synchronous mechanization services from planting trays, preparing land, rice transplanters, caring, harvesting to purchasing fresh rice for farmers. "In general, the number of cooperatives operating effectively has increased, most of them are profitable" - Mr. Nguyen Van Duong said.

Accompanying and overcoming difficulties with cooperatives

However, despite achieving many positive results, cooperatives are still facing many difficulties. Most of them lack operating capital, small service scale, lack stability, and low competitiveness. Insufficient facilities, small number of members, modest capital contribution... causing difficulties in operation, expanding production and business as well as creating potential for joint ventures.

Meanwhile, many cooperatives only focus on providing input services and have not paid attention to investing in expanding their fields of operation such as land preparation, harvesting, preservation, processing, linking consumption of agricultural products, and linking consumption of products for farmers.

Tan Thanh Cooperative develops pineapple products that meet VietGAP standards. Photo: Thai Duong

In the coming years, to continue improving the operational efficiency of agricultural cooperatives associated with restructuring the rural agricultural economy and building new rural areas, Yen Thanh has proposed many solutions with specific goals.

In particular, focusing on promoting propaganda, raising people's awareness of the role of cooperatives; enhancing the role of Party committees and authorities at all levels in accompanying and supporting cooperatives to operate effectively. At the same time, strengthening state management of collective economy, orientation, creating a legal corridor for cooperatives to operate; supporting and helping in the direction of taking cooperatives as a bridge between the state, farmers and businesses; improving the capacity of cooperatives.