Survey of farmer cooperatives shows that operational difficulties easily lead to disbandment
——A survey of farmer professional cooperatives in Zibo, Shandong
Staff reporter Bian Minde
Editor's note: Land equity, mutual fund assistance, socialized services... After years of development, China's farmer professional cooperatives have produced a variety of cooperation models. These cooperatives have played an important role in expanding the scale of agricultural production and operation, enhancing industrial competitiveness, and promoting increased income for farmers. But some cooperatives are not standardized enough in management, have not achieved proper distribution of benefits, and lack an effective self-development mechanism. In the course of cooperative development, issues such as how to protect farmers' interests, how to achieve industrial upgrading, and how to sustain self-development all urgently need to be resolved. Starting with this issue, the "New Countryside" weekly will launch a series of reports, "Focus on Cooperatives," paying attention to these problems in development and striving to explore answers.
Ten years ago, farmer professional cooperatives were still a new term, and only a handful of people had heard of them. Ten years later, what was once a "rarity" has spread like a prairie fire, and its impact on rural areas, agriculture, and farmers is like a giant boulder falling into water, stirring up a thousand waves.
Scaling up, lowering costs, increasing income... The benefits of joining a cooperative are self-evident. But across the vast countryside, a wait-and-see attitude has not been eliminated. Failure cases exposed from time to time further sting farmers' cautious and sensitive nerves. Can money be made, and how can returns be guaranteed... The "calculations" in farmers' minds are nothing more than the protection of their own interests.
After the initial rapid expansion, farmer professional cooperatives now face many difficulties. Answering farmers' doubts well and giving them a "reassurance pill" is a required question for cooperatives to keep moving forward.
Money was made, but the worry is hard to dispel
In the cooperative organizational system, individual farmers are generally in a relatively weak position
Located in a mountainous area with drought in nine out of ten years, the villagers of Liaowu Village, Zhaili Town, Zichuan District, Zibo City, Shandong Province, did not have an easy life in the past.
The village has a tradition of growing millet. However, because the land is poor, it was not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but yields remained low and the crop could not fetch a good price, so it often had to be stored at home for several years.
"These years have been much better. The cooperative is run quite properly, and from sowing to harvesting, everything follows their requirements." When 61-year-old Xin Weimin did the accounts, millet yield per mu increased by 30%, and the selling price was 50% higher. "One mu can bring in three to four thousand yuan, and more than 80% of the village's farming households grow millet."
The cooperative Xin Weimin mentioned was established in 2008, and its full name is the Liaowu Millet Professional Cooperative. After more than 8 years of development, the cooperative has expanded from the initial 17 member households to more than 170 now, with a planting area of more than 3,700 mu. The number of farming households actually participating has already reached as many as 576, among which many poor households have escaped poverty through this.
Chairman Sun Bo introduced that the cooperative provides members with free technical guidance and improved seeds, and also finds ways to reduce fertilizer costs. "More importantly, it purchases millet uniformly at a price 20% higher than the market price. This is only the floor price; in actual operation, the purchase price will be raised further according to sales conditions."
The cooperative emphasizes shared benefits, which has indeed let farmers taste sweetness, and innovations in planting methods have made everyone's wallets fuller. Farmers can see and feel these changes. While placing high hopes on cooperatives, a sense of anxiety also occasionally arises.
The elderly couple Yue Zengqun in Zhanggongtian Village, Qingcheng Town, Gaoqing County, Zibo City, was initially doubtful about joining a cooperative. After seeing others receive both payments and dividends after joining, the couple simply transferred all 4.8 mu of their family land to the Dianxiang Vegetable Professional Cooperative. In the first two years, once autumn came, the couple could receive every cent of the payment. But last year, there was movement only when the year-end approached.
"Has something gone wrong with the cooperative? Will the 'boss' abscond with the money?" The couple began to harbor doubts. Only later did they learn that Dianxiang Cooperative had overexpanded, management loopholes had appeared, and it had run into funding difficulties.
Wang Ruijun of the Agricultural Economics Station of the Gaoqing County Agriculture Bureau said farmers' worries are not excessive. "Although cooperatives are voluntarily formed by farmers, in the entire cooperative organizational system, due to various limitations of their own, they do not know much about operational information, and individual farmers are generally in a relatively weak position."
Only by breathing together can they "share good fortune"
Weak cooperative awareness and loose alignment of interests are problems that urgently need to be solved
As the saying goes, sharing breath and destiny, but reality is often not like that.
As the head of the Economic Management Station of the Zichuan District Agriculture Bureau, Yang Daoying likes to chat with cooperative leaders in his spare time. Several times, he heard complaints like this. "It is supposed to be shared benefits and shared risks, but in reality there are more times of shared benefits and fewer times of shared risks."
There are many similar cases. In some cooperatives, when benefits are good, farmers from all around compete to join, but once operational difficulties appear, they scatter like "the tree falls and the monkeys scatter." In some cooperatives, when funds need to be raised, few are willing to step forward, but as soon as dividends come around, people suddenly appear.
"Weak cooperative awareness and loose alignment of interests are problems in many cooperatives." In Yang Daoying's view, within most cooperatives the relationship is essentially a simple buying and selling relationship, and a true community of interests has not yet formed. "In such a loose state, although they have grouped together, the gaps left are very large, and farmers' interests are naturally hard to protect."
In this situation, cooperative management appears especially important. The Dianxiang Vegetable Professional Cooperative led by Zhang Weigang once had such a lesson. After joining the cooperative, farmers became new members, clocking in and out for work and drawing wages like city dwellers. At first, because management was not refined, members relied on self-discipline in labor, and the problem of showing up but not putting in effort was exposed.
"We can't keep our eyes fixed on members working, and we can't install surveillance everywhere." Not only that, Zhang Weigang also found that serious waste of vehicles, pens, ink, and paper had become a big problem. Last year alone, expenses on vehicles reached 40,000 to 50,000 yuan. "This year we abandoned the 'big pot rice' approach, redrew responsibility greenhouses and responsibility fields, and let members earn more for more work; we implemented 'official vehicle reform,' sold 3 vegetable transport vehicles, and purchased services from society. By stopping leaks and escapes, we protected the cooperative's wealth."
"The healthy development of the cooperative is the greatest protection of farmers' interests." Sun Bo's feeling is that although the cooperative has gone through nearly ten years, it is still in the primary stage of development. "We must be practical, move from easy to difficult, do as much as we can, and not blindly expand scale. On the basis of ensuring that members continue to receive returns, we should strengthen cohesion through effective management."
Set rules and build a firm "iron fence"
Development and standardization must proceed simultaneously; there must be both guidance and support, and strengthened supervision
The government is undoubtedly farmers' greatest support. In the course of cooperative development, effective supervision and timely intervention by relevant government departments are especially important for protecting farmers' interests.
"At present, there are all kinds of problems in cooperative development." Li Tongwu, deputy director of the Zichuan District Agriculture Bureau, admitted frankly that there had previously been much debate over whether to develop first or standardize first. "We believe development and standardization must proceed simultaneously. The whole Zichuan District has more than 600 registered cooperatives, more than 300 operating well, more than 200 operating ordinarily, and more than 100 with problems. As the competent department, we must handle them promptly and ensure that cleanup and rectification allow both entry and exit."
Policy guidance is an important adjusting tool. At present, from the central level to local levels, a series of measures such as fiscal awards and subsidies, loan support, and talent training have been formulated to guide cooperatives toward further standardization. Zichuan District has set up a special fund for cooperative development, used for long-term support of demonstration cooperative projects at the municipal level and above and for rewarding cooperatives. Through bundled support, Zichuan District gives priority to concentrating various agricultural infrastructure construction projects in typical demonstration cooperatives, specialty industry cooperatives, and advantageous industry cooperatives.
Supervision of cooperatives requires several more "locks." Taking agreements signed between cooperatives and farmers as an example, the force of a third party is indispensable. Gaoqing County's approach is that agreements signed between cooperatives and members are made in triplicate, with the cooperative and the member each keeping one copy, and another copy entrusted to the government department where the cooperative is located for safekeeping. Gaoqing County's audit department also includes all 719 registered cooperatives in the county within the scope of financial auditing, to prevent cooperatives from falsifying and cheating or harming farmers.
"Cooperatives must not be allowed to drift outside financial and judicial supervision; functional departments must provide farmers with multiple layers of protection." Wang Ruijun believes that agricultural production risk is relatively high, and once risk appears, farmers must be helped to stop losses in a timely manner. "If a cooperative suffers a broken capital chain or the boss 'absconds,' the judicial department must intervene immediately to preserve assets. In particular, necessary support must be effectively given to farmers' demands to recover land use rights according to law."