Developing specialized cooperatives to raise farmers' incomes: a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference puts forward suggestions

Hualong Net, March 7, 12:10 dispatch (Chongqing Broadcasting reporter Wu Mei, Hualong Net digital reporter Wang Sen) “On one side, the government work report stresses strengthening urban-rural coordination and promoting farmers' income growth; on the other, large amounts of rural farmland lie abandoned and output value is low.” Xie Deti, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was full of emotion after hearing the government work report. In his view, the development of farmers' specialized cooperatives and the raising of the degree of agricultural organization mentioned by Premier Wen in the government work report should become the key to raising agricultural production, advancing industrialized agricultural operation and agricultural structural adjustment, and steadily increasing farmers' incomes. For this reason, at this year's Two Sessions, he carefully prepared a related proposal, calling on all parties to attach importance to supporting rural cooperatives.
The current situation of rural land resource utilization is very worrying. As soon as the topic of agricultural production is mentioned, committee member Xie Deti's expression becomes very grave. As a committee member who has long paid attention to the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, going to the countryside for research is a regular task for him. From his previous research, the current rural land utilization rate is not ideal. According to relevant surveys, at present, 50% to 60% of farmers' income is wage income, and wage income increases through working as migrant laborers, while the proportion of income from farming and breeding in rural areas is relatively small. “Why is it small? Because large numbers of our educated and able-bodied people have gone out to work. Now we have many hollow households, and much land has been abandoned. According to our surveys, the low figure is 5%, and the high figure reaches 20%. Some village groups have been left completely abandoned for nothing.”

Committee member Xie Deti said that, apart from going out to work leading to abandoned land, the scattering of land resources in some areas and backward production methods are also reasons restricting farmers' income growth. For this reason, committee member Xie Deti has all along strongly agreed with the idea of vigorously developing rural specialized cooperatives. In the interview, counting on his fingers, he told reporters one by one the benefits rural specialized cooperatives can bring to farmers: if formerly scattered farmers are integrated together, they can not only reduce the costs of seeds, pesticides and so on, but also help open up sales channels and help farmers increase their incomes.

It is understood that at present there are in fact more than 80,000 farmers' specialized cooperatives nationwide, and specialized cooperatives are also transforming toward large-scale, intensive and standardized production, with the industrial chain extending from simple production to processing, transport and sales. Although the overall development trend of rural specialized cooperatives is good, committee member Xie Deti believes that there are still three major factors restricting their development: “First, government support is insufficient; second, financing and loans; third, there is a relative lack of professional and technical personnel.”

Committee member Xie Deti said that the state currently stipulates fiscal and tax support policies for rural specialized cooperatives, but the support is not strong. According to surveys by relevant departments, central and local fiscal support funds average less than 13,000 yuan per cooperative, and fewer than 300 cooperatives can enjoy central fiscal support each year, a proportion that is too small. Tax support policies have also not been fully implemented. In this regard he put forward suggestions: “First, the state should provide policy support and guidance for farmers' specialized cooperatives, as well as funding support, and also support in financing. At the same time, it should supplement and bring in some personnel who understand technology, operation and management to guide the development of specialized cooperatives. At the same time, it should introduce measures to transfer idle land, poorly managed land and land that no one operates to specialized cooperative organizations, so as to expand scale. In this way, specialized cooperative organizations can connect with the market, improve the quality of agricultural products, raise prices, and enable farmers to obtain more benefits.”

At the end of the interview, committee member Xie Deti told reporters that he was very glad to see in Premier Wen's government report the work requirement to “develop farmers' specialized cooperatives and raise the degree of agricultural organization,” and he hoped relevant departments would earnestly implement it in this year's actual work, so that the ranks of specialized cooperatives will continue to grow and help farmers step onto the fast track out of poverty toward prosperity. Hualong Net