Three Major New Types of Agricultural Operating Entities Join Forces to Blaze a New Trail

After so much labor has moved to the cities, who will farm the land? How can the family-based operating system farm the land well? How can agricultural production avoid natural risks and market risks and farm the land efficiently?

Suzhou City, Anhui Province, with family farms as the foundation, agricultural enterprises as the leaders, and farmers' professional cooperatives as the link, has brought the advantages of the three major operating entities into complementarity and win-win cooperation, and under the government's guidance has blazed a new path for the development of modern agriculture.

Who will farm the land? The consortium makes farmers more motivated to farm

In the core area of the modern agriculture comprehensive demonstration zone in Huigu Town, Yongqiao District, as far as the eye can see, green corn seedlings are growing vigorously; rows of automatic sprinklers are watering the ten-thousand-mu contiguous corn fields. The "Huaihe Seed Industry Grain Industry Consortium" is composed of Suzhou Huaihe Seed Industry, Huaihe Agricultural Machinery Cooperative, Limin Planting Cooperative, and 16 family farms, operating nearly ten thousand mu of land.

Li Qingwu, head of the consortium, introduced that Huaihe Seed Industry is responsible for production and operation plans, formulation of production standards, supply of improved seeds and production materials, technical services, product procurement, and sales; the planting cooperative is responsible for specialized and socialized services throughout the entire agricultural production process of the family farms; and the family farms, in accordance with the technical standards of the leading enterprise, are responsible for grain production.

When operating agriculture can enable every family to earn money and live a decent life, then family farms will naturally be competitive, and more and more labor will engage in agricultural production and operation.

And in Suzhou, Anhui, more and more family farms are emerging.

Zhang Zheng is a family farmer in the Bihe Tianyuan Agricultural Industry Consortium in Lingbi County, Suzhou City. The couple contracts 2 solar greenhouse sheds in the Bihe Tianyuan vegetable industry base, forming an internal family farm. Seedlings, fertilizer, and technical guidance are all provided by the cooperative, and products are uniformly collected and sold by Bihe Tianyuan. Bihe Tianyuan pays each person a living allowance of 500 yuan per month, and at year-end they participate in profit sharing and can receive 40% of the operating dividends from the two greenhouses. Over a year, the couple's net income can reach more than 70,000 yuan.

Zhang Zheng is the epitome of many farmers in the industry consortium. At present, farmers in the industry consortium, regardless of whether the land is transferred, have 4 sources of income every year with guaranteed returns regardless of drought or flood: first, increased household operating income through moderately scaled operations and the development of modern agriculture; second, transfer income from policies that strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich farmers; third, increased wage income for farmers; and fourth, increased property income for farmers through the confirmation of land contract management rights.

How can the land be farmed well?

Cooperatives make agricultural services more competitive

"Working on farm chores at the cooperative with fellow villagers is not worse than going out to work, and I can also take care of the children and the elderly." Qian Jun told the reporter that in the past, farming was hard work, but lacking planting techniques, after deducting seeds, pesticides, and labor, there was little money to be made in a year. Since he transferred his family's land and joined the "Huaihe Seed Industry Grain Industry Consortium," the situation has been very different. The consortium is formed by a leading enterprise, farmers' cooperatives, and multiple family farms. As long as farmers join, everything from plowing, planting, and management to harvesting and selling is fully entrusted to the consortium.

Cooperatives transfer land to achieve centralized management and operation, making agriculture more competitive in many aspects such as production cost control, application of planting and breeding technology, and sales of agricultural products.

Last year, Xinmin Planting Professional Cooperative combined with several other professional cooperatives to form the "Baimu Liangyuan Vegetable Industry Consortium," driving farmers to plant in contiguous areas and operate intensively, and through integrating resources and agriculture-benefiting funds, achieving the upgrading of agricultural machinery and agronomy. Li Min introduced that the cooperative is characterized by ecological planting and breeding, fermenting livestock and poultry manure from farms for use as fertilizer in the vegetable base, without using any chemical fertilizers, ensuring the quality of agricultural products and producing pure natural green food. At the same time, the cooperative has realized a unique business model of base-to-supermarket docking and base-to-direct-sales-store connection.

"Everything grown here is organic pollution-free vegetables. Pick it and rinse it with water, and you can eat it! Cucumbers are picked every other day, and every afternoon the trucks from major supermarkets come on time to haul away fresh vegetables." Li Min is the head of Xinmin Planting Professional Cooperative. He told the reporter that the cooperative has transferred 2000 mu of land, mainly growing pollution-free vegetables such as broccoli, tomatoes, and cucumbers. At present, the cooperative already has more than 300 cooperative members, driving local farmers to increase per capita income by more than 20,000 yuan.

This year, with the support of a 3 million yuan loan from the Suzhou City Suburban Credit Union, Li Min plans to establish the country's first professional direct sales team for agricultural products, and intends to establish direct sales of green pollution-free products in 17 cities across the province.

How can the land be farmed efficiently?

Leading enterprises make industry chain risks more controllable

"Within the industry consortium, each operating entity has established a stable interest linkage mechanism with one another through methods such as transaction linkage, mutual aid linkage, and asset integration." He Xiao, chairman of Anhui Bihe Tianyuan Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., analyzed that through cooperation, the leading enterprise has established its own production base, the family farms' land operation has achieved cost savings and efficiency gains, and the cooperative's operating income has increased significantly, achieving the goals of 'reducing production costs, reducing operating risks, optimizing resource allocation, and improving economic benefits.'"

Agricultural enterprises uniformly formulate production plans and production standards, provide seedlings and agricultural production materials to family farms at preferential prices, and buy back agricultural products at prices above market price; cooperatives uniformly provide family farms with technology, information services, and so on; family farms produce according to standards and provide safe and reliable agricultural products to agricultural enterprises.

The introduction of leading enterprises not only extends the entire industry chain, but exploration in the direction of contract farming, processing, and sales also makes the natural risks and market risks of agricultural production more controllable.

The leading enterprise of the Huaihe Grain Industry Consortium helps family farms obtain mortgage loans and advances funds to provide family farms with seedlings and production materials;

The leading enterprise in the Lianglin Poultry Industry Consortium jointly builds production facilities with family farms, or the leading enterprise invests in building production facilities and leases them to family farms for use;

The leading enterprise of the Baimu Liangyuan Vegetable Industry Consortium conducts strict testing on vegetables produced by family farms, then uniformly uses the pollution-free vegetable trademark...

Adding leading enterprises to the industry consortium integrates the industry chain from multiple dimensions including resources, capital, technology, and market, enabling every link in the industry chain to connect effectively, and giving every entity in the consortium more and more stable profit opportunities.

Wu Zhen, deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee, told the reporter that at present the city is organizing pilot work for modern agricultural industry consortiums in accordance with the principles of market leadership, government guidance, enterprise leadership, and participation by various operating entities. Through entity innovation, Suzhou City stimulates the internal driving force of agriculture, solves the "disconnection" problems existing in agricultural production and operation between agriculture and the secondary and tertiary industries and among various production factors, and explores the way for the development of modern agriculture.

Duan Meiying, deputy director of the Suzhou Municipal Agriculture Committee, introduced that the "modern agricultural industry consortium" not only cultivates market entities for modern agriculture, but also, through land operation transfer, accelerates the intensive development of modern agricultural land. A sound agricultural service system enables family farms, cooperatives, and leading enterprises to achieve a win-win situation for all three parties, making agriculture more vibrant and farmers more prosperous.