Promoting the role of midwife for farmers

(Baonghean) - In recent years, along with effectively implementing major policies and decisions of the Party and State on agricultural and rural development, Yen Thanh district has also focused on converting agricultural cooperative models according to the 2012 Law on Cooperatives.

Having been a member of an agricultural cooperative for decades and a member of a new type of agricultural and service cooperative for more than a year, Mr. Nguyen Trong Kien in hamlet 8, Minh Thanh commune understands thoroughly the ups and downs to maintain the cooperative's operations.

Fruit tree nursery model at Minh Thanh Agricultural and Service Cooperative (Yen Thanh).

He said: his family's garden area has more than 1 hectare of hilly land growing native orange varieties, 3 sao of fish pond, raising hundreds of laying hens, 4 buffaloes and cows, 8 sao of rice fields and dozens of hectares of planted forests... As a member of the cooperative, his family enjoys many benefits from the cooperative's agricultural services, no longer worrying about the situation of private traders forcing down prices like before.

To meet the increasingly high integration requirements of the market, in early 2015, Minh Thanh Agricultural and Service Cooperative converted to a new agricultural cooperative model according to the 2012 Cooperative Law. Although still facing many difficulties in a mountainous commune, with many open policies, it initially attracted 295 members to participate. In addition to the charter capital of 500 million VND, the Cooperative also mobilized each member to contribute 1 million VND, ensuring capital for service business.

In 2015, the Cooperative gradually completed its operational network and implemented business lines such as: irrigation services, fertilizers, plant varieties, pesticides, animal feed, construction materials, trading of fruit tree varieties and internal credit services... In the first year of operation under the new law, the Cooperative built 5 production models using new varieties; supplied 450 tons of fertilizers, 14.7 tons of plant varieties and many service-linked products, bringing total sales revenue to 5.1 billion VND, exceeding 135% compared to previous years.

The internal credit fund service alone has a balance of over 5 billion VND; the total interest at the end of the year reached 468 million VND. With the results after one year of operation, it has created trust among members, and up to now, 450 members have voluntarily joined the cooperative.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Hien - Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Minh Thanh Agricultural and Service Cooperative said: After the first congress, the Cooperative has focused on irrigation work. In addition to managing 30 local dams, using the source of irrigation fee compensation, at the beginning of this year the Cooperative undertook the construction of 17 irrigation works with a total cost of 786 million VND, providing irrigation water for 312 hectares of rice and crops, limiting local drought, bringing rice productivity to approximately 7 tons/ha.

Along with that, the service stages are deployed and promoted effectively to each member and the people, notably the outstanding balance at the internal credit fund reached 7.3 billion VND, increasing the operating capital of the service types to 12 billion VND. In particular, the Cooperative has now built 3 nurseries of fruit tree varieties, in which 3,000 native orange trees have been propagated, supplying people to develop the hill garden economy. Thanks to that, the profit in the first 5 months of this year reached approximately 300 million VND.

As for Lien Thanh Agricultural and Service Cooperative, although it still faced many difficulties left by the old cooperative, initially only 30 members participated, the Party Committee and local government identified: Strengthening and developing agricultural cooperatives is an urgent requirement, truly playing the role of a "midwife" for farmers, an indispensable collective economic organization in linking production, exchange and circulation of goods. With the motto of constantly innovating the method of operation, the Cooperative's Board of Directors has mobilized 600 million VND to perform service functions in the agricultural sector. Next, the Cooperative has set out 3 key tasks, which are: irrigation services; providing seeds, agricultural materials, plant protection drugs and transferring scientific and technical advances, linking production and product consumption for farmers.

Promoting the advantages of a commune with a tradition of intensive farming, the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Science and Technology selected the project to produce rice varieties of the province. Right in the spring crop of 2016, in addition to signing a contract with Nghe An Agricultural Materials Joint Stock Corporation to supply 100 tons of fertilizer, Lien Thanh Agricultural and Service Cooperative also cooperated with seed companies to produce 130 hectares of rice varieties Bac Thom 67; Nam Huong 4; DT66, Huong Thom... At the end of the harvest, the average yield reached 3.5-3.7 quintals/ha, so nearly 300 households in 11 participating hamlets produced over 400 tons of rice varieties. Accordingly, the Cooperative directly purchased all rice varieties for the people at a price 1.5 times higher than normal rice, creating trust among the people.

Mr. Nguyen Ba Tu - Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director of Lien Thanh Agricultural and Service Cooperative affirmed that this is the initial achievement that the Cooperative has achieved in linking "4 houses" to develop together. Currently, the Cooperative is promoting agricultural services, coordinating in transferring scientific and technological advances, linking economic development with the interests of farmers. In the immediate future, the Cooperative is investing in building warehouses, drying ovens, stabilizing the scale of rice seed production of about 70% of the annual cultivated area, contributing to increasing income value per unit area and proactively sourcing seeds locally.

Lien Thanh Agricultural and Service Cooperative participates in the linkage model, purchasing rice seeds for farmers.

According to statistics, in Yen Thanh area, there are 47 agricultural cooperatives, of which 14 cooperatives have stopped operating and are waiting for dissolution. As of early June, 17 cooperatives have been newly established and converted according to the 2012 Cooperative Law, and are gradually operating effectively. However, most of the remaining cooperatives are still operating according to the 2003 Cooperative Law, with the average charter capital of each cooperative reaching nearly 400 million VND; fixed assets are only at an average of 650 million VND/unit.

Yen Thanh has recently issued a project on “Innovation and development of agricultural cooperative economy in the period of 2014 - 2020”, which has proposed many solutions to overcome the above limitations and weaknesses. Mr. Nguyen Vuong Ngoc - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee said: The goal of the district is that the remaining cooperatives will complete the congress before June 30.

Accordingly, in addition to focusing on direction, the district has recently issued many appropriate mechanisms and policies. For each agricultural cooperative, converting its operating method according to the 2012 Law on Cooperatives, the district will support the costs of organizing congresses, training, information and propaganda, applying scientific and technological advances, joint ventures and production links, consuming products for farmers and supporting the construction of factories.

Recently, on June 7, the District People's Committee had a working session with the Nghe An Province Cooperative Union, in which they organized the signing of the Collective Economic Development Coordination Program, including the main contents in coordinating information and propaganda work; building typical cooperative models; building production value chain linkages; training and fostering professional skills for cooperative officials, which are favorable conditions for agricultural cooperatives to properly perform their prescribed functions and effectively promote collective economic development, contributing with localities to complete the 13th criterion in the National Criteria Set on New Rural Construction, striving to make Yen Thanh a New Rural District before 2019.

Sun