Agricultural services delivered as a package: farmers team up to venture into the market

How can agricultural industry organizations play the role of a bridge and link? The Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce in Guangdong Province explores opening up the connection channels between technology, capital and industry to achieve win-win results for all parties -

"Packaged" delivery of services and "team-based" ventures into the market

As the pace of agricultural transformation and upgrading accelerates, new types of business entities continue to emerge, and agricultural industry organizations aimed at turning scattered efforts into collective strength and keeping each other warm are developing rapidly, with their numbers surging, showing a momentum of "a riot of flowers that dazzles the eyes." How can the policy orientation of prospering and developing social organizations and cultivating new types of agricultural business entities achieve superimposed effects? How can the development of agricultural industry organizations leap from mere quantitative growth to a higher level of quality improvement? With these questions in mind, the reporter recently visited the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce - a regional agricultural industry social organization that had been established for just half a year.

Building a service platform

The Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce is the first prefecture-level agricultural industry chamber of commerce in Guangdong Province. When talking about the original intention behind its establishment, Liao Chenglin, section chief of the Agriculture Section of the Foshan Agricultural Bureau, summarized it as going with the trend under the background of simplifying administration and delegating power, as the government transfers functions and purchases services. "On the one hand, it is necessary to improve the administrative efficiency of the competent agricultural department; on the other hand, it is also necessary to build a platform for management, services and cooperation for the city's large and high-quality agricultural business entities."

"Without the support and help of the Municipal Agricultural Bureau, this chamber of commerce would not exist." In the eyes of Dai Xin, secretary-general of the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce, the "seed" of the chamber was first sown by the government. Precisely because of this, serving the overall development of the city's agriculture, undertaking functions transferred by the government, and meeting the government's demand for purchasing social services have become the foundation of the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce.

On the day of the interview, another important official activity for Dai Xin was to go to the Foshan Agricultural Bureau to discuss matters related to the preparation of the Third Guangdong (Foshan) Safe Edible Agricultural Products Expo (abbreviated as the "Safe Agriculture Expo"). As the first agricultural exhibition activity in China themed on food safety, the Safe Agriculture Expo already enjoys a certain reputation in the industry. However, starting this year, the baton for hosting the Safe Agriculture Expo will pass from the Foshan Agricultural Bureau to the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce. "For this edition of the Safe Agriculture Expo, the Agricultural Bureau still has to teach us hand by hand how to do it," Dai Xin said. Only when exhibition experience becomes richer can the chamber take on the important task of standing on its own.

Hosting the Safe Agriculture Expo and a series of other affairs undertaken from the transfer of government functions have put the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce into accelerated operation. Among these, there are also applications for agricultural brand products, training for heads of leading agricultural enterprises and vegetable basket bases, formulation of regional industry standards, and so on.

Connecting the "internal brain" and the "external brain"

The Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce initially absorbed 123 member units, basically covering the city's (including Shunde District) leading agricultural enterprises at or above the municipal level, demonstration cooperatives of farmers' professional cooperatives, large agricultural parks, "vegetable basket" bases, and even 4 agriculture-related social organizations such as the Foshan Agricultural Society, forming a pattern of "associations within an association." For the management team of the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce, however, playing well the "good hand" in their hands is not an easy task.

Professional manager - this is how Dai Xin defines the role of the title "secretary-general of the chamber of commerce," and he is also more willing to examine the chamber's operating model with the thinking of managing an enterprise. In Dai Xin's view, if the chamber is to truly demonstrate its value, relying only on the member units as the "internal brain" is far from enough. "First, an 'external brain' must be built, and the 'external brain' and the 'internal brain' must be closely and effectively connected." The "external brain" in Dai Xin's words refers to bringing in scientific research, financial, transportation institutions and other supporting entities for agricultural development to provide team-based and inclusive services for member enterprises, and in this process achieve a "triple win" for members, the "external brain" and the chamber.

At present, the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce has reached a cooperation intention with the School of Food Science and Horticulture of Foshan University. Through an innovative teaching and research model, the latter, on the one hand, provides technical support to relevant member enterprises of the chamber, and on the other hand, also treats enterprises as important soil for the transformation of the school's scientific and technological achievements. This has also become the first "major matter" accomplished after the chamber's establishment.

Right now, preparing to establish professional committees for fisheries, flowers, vegetables, agricultural chemicals, agricultural product circulation, and others has become the "pressing task" of the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce. As secondary bodies of the chamber, one of the functions of the professional committees is to precisely integrate supply and demand between member enterprises and upstream scientific research institutions, financial enterprises, and downstream market service entities, achieving a seamless link between the "internal brain" and the "external brain."

In addition to providing "packaged" services to member enterprises in technology, law, intellectual property and policy consulting, the chamber also has to occasionally "run errands" for the special requirements of individual member enterprises. "One enterprise wanted to plant 10 mu of fruit corn but did not know where to buy good seeds; another enterprise wanted to apply for an agriculture-related project but did not know how to prepare the application materials. We help solve all these problems," a chamber staff member told the reporter.

Opening up resource channels

In Dai Xin's words, in the half year since the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce was established, the main work has been clarifying the philosophy, setting up the framework and seeking resources. However, because there were relatively few organizational activities, the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce also once faced a crisis of trust. "Some member enterprises complained: we paid membership fees, so why doesn't the chamber even organize a meal for everyone?" Dai Xin said that the work the chamber is currently doing is indeed more of the invisible kind, but it can lay a solid foundation for future development. At the same time, in his view, "organizing everyone to eat, drink and be merry" is not the normal state of survival for a social organization.

For the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce, although it has the guidance and support of the Foshan Agricultural Bureau, it likewise has to face fierce competition in the social service market for the agricultural industry. At present, in Foshan alone, there are as many as 500 social organizations named "chamber of commerce." Under such circumstances, how can the Foshan Agricultural Industry Chamber of Commerce achieve differentiated development? Dai Xin believes that the chamber must upgrade from version 1.0 to version 2.0. He said: "A version 1.0 agricultural chamber of commerce has a relatively strong administrative flavor and mostly organizes some social fellowship activities; version 2.0, by contrast, must be member-centered. On the one hand, it must provide tangible services to agricultural business entities; on the other hand, it must open up channels for resource exchange inside and outside the industry, and in this process complete the organization's own growth."