Farmer cooperatives reach 1.47 million, covering 40 percent of farming households nationwide

This website news  Since the beginning of this year, localities and relevant departments have taken the development of farmer cooperatives as an important measure for deepening rural reform and development, adopted effective measures, strengthened institutional development, improved support policies, and enhanced guidance services, guiding cooperatives toward standardized operation and innovative development. By the end of October 2015, the number of farmer cooperatives nationwide reached 1.479 million, an increase of 15.5% over the end of 2014; the number of participating farming households reached 99.97 million, covering 41.7% of farming households nationwide, and demonstration cooperatives at all levels exceeded 135,000. The development of cooperatives has effectively served and driven the vast number of small-scale farming households, played a key role in raising the level of agricultural organization and building a modern agricultural management system, and played an important role in adjusting the agricultural structure in line with market demand, promoting scale operation to increase agricultural efficiency, advancing green production to improve the quality of agricultural products, and broadening income-increasing channels to raise farmers' incomes.

With the advancement of rural reform and the deepening division of labor and specialization among farmers, farmers' demands regarding the content, fields and methods of cooperation have become diversified, and innovative forms of cooperatives have become increasingly diverse. In terms of organizational form, land share cooperatives formed by contributing contracted land management rights as shares and community share cooperatives formed by converting collective assets into quantified shares are flourishing; in some places, labor-service cooperatives formed by surplus labor after land transfer, and wealth-building (property) cooperatives formed by farmers contributing houses and factory buildings as shares, have emerged, achieving cooperation of resource factors such as land, assets and technology on the basis of cooperation among people and production cooperation. In terms of industrial formats, cooperatives actively apply new concepts and new technologies, and on the basis of producing and selling similar agricultural products, carry out diversified operations such as planting-breeding cycles, integration of production, processing and sales, folk-custom products, leisure sightseeing and rural tourism, develop emerging formats such as credit cooperation, e-commerce, membership-based consumption and subscription-based sales, and have reaped the dividends of technological progress and industrial integration. In terms of operating mechanisms, cooperatives have become open vehicles and composite organizations that combine new types of business entities with traditional farming households and integrate production with services, gradually forming operating mechanisms with diverse participants, varied benefit distribution and flexible management decision-making. In terms of support methods, some places have gradually transformed from "blood-transfusion-style" input of projects and funds to "blood-creation-style" support of building platforms and mechanisms, focusing on giving play to the guiding role and multiplier effect of support policies. Some places have converted fiscal poverty-alleviation funds into quantified shares for individual farmers and invested them in cooperatives. At the same time, in response to fierce market competition, cooperatives have carried out alliances and cooperation on a larger scale, at a higher level and in more fields; at present, there are more than 7,200 cooperative unions.

At present and for some time to come, the development of farmer cooperatives will focus on the following work: First, strengthen standardized development. Accelerate the revision of the law on specialized farmer cooperatives, improve the operating mechanisms of cooperatives, strengthen the training of leaders and instructors, deeply advance the creation of demonstration cooperatives, and guide cooperatives to establish themselves according to law, run themselves according to their charters and manage themselves according to systems. Second, strengthen service capacity building. Encourage cooperatives to develop unions by means such as joint investment and jointly building brands, form large cooperatives by means such as merger and integration, and strengthen cooperation with other new types of agricultural business entities and ordinary farming households to form industrial consortiums. Encourage farmers to contribute resource factors such as land management rights, technology and funds as shares to cooperatives, expand pilot credit cooperation in cooperatives, and vigorously develop diversified and multi-type cooperatives such as specialized cooperation and share cooperation. Third, strengthen the building of the agricultural industrial chain. Give play to the organizational function of cooperatives, drive farmers to adjust the industrial structure, develop characteristic industries, develop specialized, standardized and green production, carry out agricultural product processing and distribution and agricultural leisure sightseeing businesses, actively use "Internet Plus" to develop e-commerce, focus on cultivating agricultural product brands, raise the added value of agricultural products, enhance farmers' voice and rights to returns in integrating into the industrial chain and value chain, and enable farmers in poor areas to share the fruits of industrial development through cooperatives and achieve targeted poverty alleviation.