Cooperatives - 'midwives' for farmers in Yen Thanh
(Baonghean.vn) - Cooperatives in Yen Thanh district are developing quite effectively, promoting their role in organizing production and product consumption, contributing to increasing farmers' income.
Linking production and consumption of products according to the value chain
Tho Thanh Agricultural Service Cooperative (Tho Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District) is a typical example of a dynamic cooperative. The cooperative's role in managing and organizing production is clearly demonstrated, from performing well in service activities to investing in infrastructure serving production, contributing to changing the face of the countryside.
Mr. Ho Si Quang - Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director of Tho Thanh General Service Agricultural Cooperative said: In October 2015, Tho Thanh General Service Agricultural Cooperative converted to a new cooperative model, and officially started operating in early 2017. In the early days, the cooperative had only 58 members, operating in a multi-sector business model, in which the main business was agricultural services, facing many difficulties.
However, with efforts and dynamism, up to now, the cooperative has developed quite strongly. To serve the agricultural production sector well, the cooperative has invested in purchasing machinery to serve the people, such as 1 tray seedling machine, 2 plows, 2 harvesters and 20 transplanters, 80,000 trays of seedlings, implementing a chain of linkages in cultivation, from land preparation, seedling planting, machine planting, spraying pesticides, harvesting and consuming output products. Specifically, serving tray seedling planting for over 500 hectares of rice in Tho Thanh commune and neighboring districts; coordinating with enterprises to organize the production of high-quality rice varieties in the fields; purchasing fresh rice for people with an area of 300-400 hectares (over 1,000 tons of rice).
Since 2022, the cooperative has implemented a chain of linkages in the livestock sector, from breeding animals, animal feed, and product consumption for members. On average, each month the cooperative supplies 200-220 tons of feed to nearly 150 farms and households... Along with that, the cooperative has performed well in the environmental sector, waste collection and treatment; internal credit activities... Revenue in 2023 is expected to reach over 40 billion VND.
Minh Thanh Agricultural and Construction Cooperative is also a bright spot of the district in recent years.This unit has promoted its role by performing well in agricultural services such as supplying various types of plant seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, soil preparation, plant protection, and field protection. In particular, in the mechanization stage, the unit has purchased 6 plows, 8 transplanters, and 2 harvesters, meeting the people's needs.
Mr. Nguyen Cong Hien - Director of Minh Thanh Agricultural and Construction Cooperative added: The Cooperative has implemented a chain of linkages, has built the brands of "clean oranges", "clean rice", linked and consumed products (120 hectares of high-quality rice, 20 hectares of oranges meeting OCOP product standards), increasing the economic value of products for farmers.
In parallel, the cooperative has built small and medium-sized projects in the area, creating jobs for 30 workers. Up to now, the unit has had over 720 members participating, achieving annual revenue of over 12 billion VND. The unit has built warehouses, workshops to store fertilizers, machinery, booths to introduce agricultural products, etc.
Strengthening effective and sustainable operational solutions
According to the report of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Yen Thanh district, in 2023, the district had 47 cooperatives in operation, with total revenue in the year reaching over 131 billion VND, with 15,000 members participating. Agricultural cooperatives have actively contributed to the transformation of the agricultural and rural economic structure towards industrialization and modernization.
Notably, in addition to agricultural services and input supply, cooperatives have expanded and focused on developing many new, highly effective industries such as animal feed services, environment, market management, clean water supply, internal credit, etc. Some cooperatives have built a chain linking production and product consumption for farmers. In 2023, cooperatives in the area purchased 7,680 tons of rice for farmers.
However, cooperatives in Yen Thanh district are still facing some difficulties. Most of the cooperatives lack operating capital, have small service scale, lack stability, and low competitiveness. Many cooperatives do not have a working office, and are having to rely on the office of the commune People's Committee or the hamlet hall; they do not have a warehouse to gather materials, so they are limited in proactively storing materials when market prices decrease.
The number of members of agricultural cooperatives is still small, the capital contribution of each member is still modest, most agricultural cooperatives face many obstacles in accessing loan sources. Some cooperatives are not large enough to expand production and business, and do not have the potential to form joint ventures and associations.
The operations of some cooperatives are still mainly based on experience, and the mindset is still based on the support of the State, not flexible according to the market mechanism. Many agricultural cooperatives only focus on input services for agricultural production such as: supplying seeds, materials, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation in the fields... Other services such as: land preparation, harvesting, linking consumption of agricultural products, preservation, processing... have not been focused on implementation.
To continue improving the operational efficiency of agricultural cooperatives, Yen Thanh district annually organizes training and transfers scientific and technological advances in agriculture to cooperatives. In 2023, the district will support over 6.8 billion VND to build new cooperative models, linking production activities along the value chain, applying science, technology, and digital transformation in production, business, trade, and services of cooperatives.
The district proposed solutions: Strengthening existing cooperatives and developing and establishing new agricultural cooperatives associated with typical products, OCOP products, and craft villages of each commune according to the advantages of each region. Cooperatives apply high-tech production, plant and animal production models... in the direction of creating high added value in production.
Strengthening the organizational, management, operational and business capacity of cooperatives; paying attention to training activities, human resource development, trade promotion, investment in infrastructure serving production and product processing; creating conditions for cooperatives to borrow credit capital and access State support capital sources to invest in infrastructure and expand production scale.
By 2024, Yen Thanh district strives to have over 40% of cooperatives linked to production and consuming products for people, achieving revenue of over 150 billion VND.
