How can agricultural cooperatives break through three development ceilings?

Qin Jianfeng, chairman of the Guanshan Jianfeng Chicken Farming Professional Cooperative in Ningxiang County: For a cooperative like ours to get an interest-free loan, the policy exists, but putting it into practice is extremely difficult.

By the end of 2013, Hunan had 18,259 farmers' professional cooperatives, with 1.807 million farming households joining. The number is not small, but it must be said that developing fast absolutely does not equal developing well. Lack of money. Li Xufang, a national major grain grower in Heshan District, Yiyang, is a case in point. His 4,500 mu of farmland had just weathered the "late spring cold," and then he faced a million-yuan gap for spring plowing agricultural materials.

Li Xufang, chairman of the Yiyang Yimin Agricultural Professional Cooperative and a national major grain grower: Nine friends and relatives together loaned 300,000, private funds were 300,000 to 400,000, and together with my previous money it all went in. We want to ask the Agricultural Bank of China and the Agricultural Development Bank to truly think of the farmers, and whether the loan limit could be a bit larger, one million or two million would be fine, but it was not used for our agriculture, it all went into real estate.

Indeed, with little collateral in hand and high natural risk, financial institutions often "retreat three舍" from cooperatives that come asking for loans. With "no money to put in the pot," cooperatives either close down or spin in place. Lack of people: few understand science and technology or the market; lack of facilities, even more so, such as dryers, grain-drying yards and so on. Even somewhat better cooperatives are no exception. For example, the cooperative in Qiaotouhe Town, Lianyuan, Loudi, supplies more than 60% of the vegetables in the urban area, and is advanced at the municipal and provincial levels, yet the cooperative still only does the work of a "nanny," providing seeds and fertilizer and organizing planting; wanting to be a "steward" is difficult.

Wang Jianliang, manager of the Planting Professional Cooperative in Qiaotouhe Town, Lianyuan: With our base relying on its own strength, it is still rather difficult to accurately grasp market information, and what vegetables we should plant is still rather vague; after planting, we can only rely on luck

If the foundation is not firm, no building can be built. To be honest, most of Hunan's agricultural cooperatives today are still "millet plus rifles." If they need to face large-scale infrastructure and the construction of market information platforms, cooperatives will inevitably suffer "unbearable pain." Compared with Japan, the agricultural cooperative association there can obtain government support for 50% of investment in factories and equipment. As the saying goes, "if the oil is not full, the cart cannot go far."

Wang Wenqiang, director of the Rural Research Institute of the Hunan Academy of Social Sciences: Cooperatives actually install a springboard for building refined agriculture. But as cooperation among the weak groups of a weak industry, farmers' professional cooperatives cannot do without government guidance and support in the initial stage of growth. If government services are absent, or not enthusiastic enough, they will turn this red line of cooperatives into a "broken line."

I suggest that at the present stage we must get serious about the design of government systems for supporting agriculture. Borrow a chicken to lay eggs. The government should treat cooperatives as an important vehicle for fiscal support to agriculture, increase fiscal subsidies and tax preferences, and at the same time support cooperatives in "borrowing a chicken to lay eggs" through loan interest subsidies, credit guarantees and other means.

Practice internal skills well. Help cooperatives train management personnel, and support rural capable people and university student village officials in participating in founding cooperatives.

In Taiwan, China, more than 90% of farming households have joined government-designated grassroots farmers' associations, and the credit departments of these associations can fully meet farmers' loan needs for production and daily life. The associations also have marketing departments that can help farmers achieve direct sales of products, reduce intermediate links and obtain maximum profit.

Wang Wenqiang, director of the Rural Research Institute of the Hunan Academy of Social Sciences: Cooperatives do not have the high profits and taxes of industry, but agriculture is always the foundation. I suggest that governments at all levels should bring to agriculture the same enthusiasm they bring to industry, act as a good "nanny" to cooperatives, help them onto the horse and accompany them for a stretch.