What is the cooperative form with farmers as the main body? Read this article to understand

In today's farmers' cooperative organizations, apart from a few villages like Huaxi and Nanjie that still follow the collective economy path, there also exists a form of farmer-initiated cooperation. This cooperation still takes land contracting as the main body, that is, the land is still managed by individuals, except that they have reorganized themselves, improving the efficiency of labor utilization. To some extent, this kind of farmers' cooperative organization is a middle path between farmers working alone and collective prosperity.

Through Mr. Li Changping, an expert on the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, I learned about the farmers' cooperation form in Gushuyu Village, Lianzhen Town, Dongguang County, Hebei. The village has 232 households and 1818 mu of cultivated land. In 2008, the village established the Gushuyu Farmers' Cooperative. More than half of the village's farming households handed their cultivated land to the cooperative for unified cultivation. While increasing the land area and raising grain output, it also freed up rural labor and broadened the channels for farmers to increase their income.

In the wheat fields of the Gushuyu Farmers' Cooperative, the reporter saw that although the weather had already turned cold, the wheat fields were still a stretch of green, and the wheat seedlings were seizing the last opportunity before freezing to grow vigorously. Unlike the wheat fields in other villages, here there were fewer of the wide field ridges that villagers build to separate neighboring plots. Only for the convenience of irrigation were they divided into uniform large strips, with a thin “soil line” between one strip and the next, causing no waste of cultivated land at all.

Wang Jiehua, the person in charge of the cooperative, told reporters that this large stretch of wheat fields is cultivated land absorbed by the cooperative from villagers of the same village, and is uniformly consolidated, uniformly cultivated, uniformly managed and uniformly harvested by the cooperative. At present, the cooperative has 210 members (households), and has received a total of 980 mu of land transferred and contributed as shares by farmers, more than 50% of the village's land. The cooperative uniformly consolidated this land and removed the field ridges between plots, thus increasing the planted area by 90 mu compared with before.

In recent years, more and more villagers have gone out to do business or work. They simply could not manage farming while working, and much land saw reduced yields or was even left abandoned. In December 2007, Wang Huajie and 4 other villagers initiated the establishment of the “Gushuyu Farmers' Cooperative”, which officially began operating in March 2008. That year, the cooperative absorbed 120 member households and 91,000 yuan in mutual aid (share) funds, purchased large tractors and rotary plows, and provided agricultural machinery services to members. After making a profit, part was retained by the cooperative and the rest was distributed to members as dividends. Later, in order to let villagers go out to work with greater peace of mind, the cooperative began to absorb villagers' transferred land into the cooperative, paying a fixed transfer fee of 500 yuan per mu each year, and distributing dividends at the end of the year according to the cooperative's performance. At present, the cooperative has received a total of 980 mu of land transferred and contributed as shares by villagers, and on this cultivated land it has planted crops such as corn, wheat, potatoes, watermelons and cotton.

The cooperative absorbs villagers' cultivated land for unified cultivation, allowing part of the rural labor force to be freed from the land and to go out to work and earn money with peace of mind, broadening the channels for increasing income and becoming better off. In 2010, the villagers' per capita net income was more than 9,000 yuan, double that of 2007.

Farmers who go out to work hand all their land to the cooperative for management, can devote themselves wholeheartedly to working elsewhere, and can also collect transfer fees without lifting a finger, becoming a ’double-salary group’. As for farmers who stay at home to farm, they also earn labor income from farming at home, and the increased output can be shared with other cooperative members. In this way, the cooperative provides employment opportunities for some laborers who lack skills or do not want to go out to work. Villager Zhang Xiuliang's family originally had 14 mu of cultivated land. He put all of it into the cooperative, while he himself works at the cooperative, working about 8 months a year at a monthly wage of 900 yuan. His wife also does short-term work for the cooperative, earning about 3,000-plus yuan a year. “Add the 7,000 yuan land transfer fee each year and the year-end dividend, and not only is the income higher, but it also saves worry and effort.” said Zhang Xiuliang, a farmer in Gushuyu Village.

More importantly, after the land was collectively cultivated, not only was the cultivated land area increased through consolidation, but because the cooperative operates the land on a large scale and carries out intensive management in the production process, the cost of cultivated land was greatly reduced, saving at least 150 yuan per mu, and the cooperative saved more than 100,000 yuan.

To solve the severe drought problem facing the wheat fields, the cooperative invested 160,000 yuan to drill a 300-meter deep well, purchased equipment such as transformers and submersible pumps, and laid 2,700 meters of pipeline. Thanks to timely irrigation and scientific management, wheat yield per mu reached about 500 kilograms, an increase of more than 20% over before. In 2009, the cooperative's land generated an annual profit of more than 600,000 yuan. In 2010, the cooperative adjusted the land planting structure, and the 200 mu of potatoes, 200 mu of watermelons and 300 mu of cotton it planted had a bumper harvest, with the cooperative's land generating an annual profit of more than 1.1 million yuan.

With cultivated land handed to the cooperative for management, some farmers who are quick-minded, bold and understand economics began to turn to the industrial sector in search of development. At present, the village has built 12 carton machinery factories, with products sold to Zhejiang and other places, providing employment for more than 200 people. The development of the packaging machinery industry has also provided employment opportunities for more farmers in the village who have been freed from the land. At present, more than 50 people in the village are away all year round selling the village's main product —— carton machinery. Villager Ren Qiang's family originally had 13 mu of cultivated land, all of which was joined into the cooperative, while he himself established Yunxiang Packaging Machinery Co., Ltd., paying more than 400,000 yuan in taxes a year and also providing jobs for more than 20 people.