Horqin Right Front Banner's cooperative+ model helps farmers escape poverty and achieve prosperity
On May 31, the reporter walked into Tumen Gacha, E'ergetu Town, Horqin Right Front Banner, where Gu Lianguo, head of Benkang Cooperative, was leading cooperative members in micro-sprinkler irrigation in a sugar beet field, their faces beaming with joy.
"Sugar beet production has achieved order-based sales, at 500 yuan per mu. The government also gives a subsidy of 150 yuan for planting 1 mu of sugar beet. Based on current market conditions, the yield per mu can reach at least 4.5 tons, and each household can earn 500 yuan in income." Gu Lianguo said happily, holding sugar beet seedlings.
Developing characteristic industries and implementing industrial poverty alleviation are key measures for lifting poor people out of poverty. Since the launch of targeted poverty alleviation work, Tumen Gacha, E'ergetu Town, Horqin Right Front Banner, has placed 7 cooperatives under the management of one cooperative, with each small cooperative responsible for a different division of labor, and established Benkang Agricultural Machinery Cooperative, enabling poor people to truly become the driving force and beneficiaries of poverty alleviation and development. Speaking of the role played by the cooperative, farmers in Tumen Gacha put it plainly: "Ordinary people have no money in hand, and even if they have money, they have no technology and no courage. It is better to work with the cooperative."
Benkang Cooperative not only allows poor villagers to work at the base and earn wages, but also allows them to receive rent through land transfers and dividends from shareholding. This has brought considerable income to local farmers, and the cooperative has truly become a good helper for local poor people to join together and prosper. Zhang Shuying, employed in the cooperative's canteen, is a registered poor household in the village. She said: "Working at my doorstep brings a monthly wage of 2,400 yuan, allows me to take care of my family, and crucially, I can still get year-end dividends. It kills three birds with one stone." There are 82 such poor households with 249 people in Tumen Gacha, all of whom have gained stable income through industrial development. In 2017, relying on this development model, Tumen Gacha will lift 59 households with 181 people out of poverty, and in 2018 it will achieve whole-village poverty alleviation.
This year, Benkang Cooperative transferred 26,000 mu of land, accounting for more than 40% of the village's land. On the transferred land, 1,400 mu of sugar beet and 3,000 mu of black beans were planted, with all the rest planted with silage. In addition, the cooperative plans to raise 30,000 beef cattle, and 20 million fine grains have all been put in place, waiting only for the right time to begin breeding. A pig breeding base with a total investment of 3 billion yuan has already started construction. Once completed and put into operation, it will form a modern pig industry base integrating production, supply, processing and sales, can provide employment for 2,000 local farmers and herdsmen, and form a pig industry chain with an output value of 8 billion yuan. The 200 villagers of Tumen Gacha have also achieved employment at their doorstep, with a guaranteed minimum wage of 3,500 yuan and a maximum of 10,000 yuan.
Wang Yongqing, secretary of the Gacha, told us that targeted poverty alleviation is aimed at each poor family, and poverty alleviation funds are limited. Apportioning them to each household may not achieve the goal of fundamentally lifting poor households out of poverty. But if poor households invest poverty alleviation funds in cooperatives and integrate the funds to make them "come alive," this not only solves the cooperative's financing difficulties, but also solves the problems poor households face when undertaking projects independently, such as insufficient funds, lack of technology and high risks.