What are the 2016 agricultural cooperative subsidies and preferential policies?

The state encourages rural areas to develop cooperative economy, supports the development of large-scale, specialized and modernized operations, allows fiscal project funds to be invested directly in eligible cooperatives, allows assets formed by fiscal subsidies to be transferred to cooperatives for holding and management, and allows cooperatives to engage in credit cooperation. Let's take a look together at the 2016 agricultural cooperative subsidies and preferential policies!

2016 Agricultural Cooperative Policy Adjustments

1. Large agricultural operators can also apply for projects, no longer required to be independent legal persons: The new policy stipulates that new types of agricultural business entities such as specialized large operators, family farms and socialized service organizations recognized or registered by relevant departments can all be included in the support scope of industrialized operation projects, and are no longer restricted by the condition of independent legal person qualification. The threshold for applying for agricultural subsidies has been further relaxed. For example, it doesn't matter if you haven't registered with the industry and commerce department, as long as you are registered with the relevant department. Large agricultural operators and family farms can all apply for projects, and the state's support for new types of agricultural business entities will increase more and more.

2. Applicants no longer need to be “profitable for two consecutive years”: For farmers' cooperatives and leading enterprises, as long as they have been registered with the industry and commerce department for more than 1 year and have sustainable operating capacity, they can apply for industrialized operation projects. But in the past, many people reported that preparing materials was really a troublesome matter. This policy stipulates that the application materials will no longer include provisions such as “more than 70% from the enterprise's registered location, profitable for two consecutive years, asset-liability ratio, bank credit rating, ‘three no-owe’, net value of fixed assets”. In other words, the application materials are simpler, and agricultural business entities can free up more energy to make projects more refined and solid.

3. Farmers can also hold shares in fiscal fund investments: Some fiscal fund investments are encouraged to be held as shares by farmers or by farmers through cooperatives in leading enterprises. Generally speaking, the state's agricultural industrialized operations all adopt organizational forms such as “leading enterprise + farmers” and “leading enterprise + specialized cooperative economic organization + farmers”. Now farmers and enterprises are integrated, but the roles of holding and not holding shares are very different. If farmers can hold shares in the invested funds, it means they can enjoy dividends. If the enterprise operates well, farmers can both receive wages and dividends, and the returns will certainly be much better than just working for the enterprise.

4. Provinces are encouraged to implement “subsidy after construction” for funds: The new policy proposes that provinces can implement “subsidy after construction”, where after project approval, implementation comes first and reimbursement comes later. After the project is fully completed and passes inspection by the county-level fiscal department and agricultural development agency, reimbursement will then be made. Agricultural economic organizations do not need to wait for money before constructing. After a successful application, project construction can begin immediately. As long as various receipts are kept, they will all be reimbursed when the project is settled. However, preliminary expenses such as project feasibility studies, preliminary design and environmental assessment cannot be reimbursed.

2016 Agricultural Cooperative Preferential Policies

1. Tax preferential policies: Sales by farmers' professional cooperatives of agricultural products produced by their own members are treated as sales of self-produced agricultural products by agricultural producers and are exempt from value-added tax. General taxpayers that purchase tax-exempt agricultural products from farmers' professional cooperatives may calculate and deduct input VAT at a deduction rate of 13%. Sales by farmers' professional cooperatives to their own members of agricultural film, seeds, seedlings, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural machinery are exempt from value-added tax. Purchase and sale contracts for agricultural products and agricultural production materials signed between farmers' professional cooperatives and their own members are exempt from stamp tax.

2. Financial support policies: All farmers' professional cooperatives are included in the rural credit assessment scope. Credit support shall be increased, focusing on farmers' professional cooperatives with a solid industrial foundation, large operating scale, high brand effect, strong service capacity, many farmers driven, good standardized management and good credit records. Rural cooperative financial institutions are supported and encouraged to innovate financial products and improve service methods. Qualified farmers' professional cooperatives are encouraged to develop credit cooperation.

3. Fiscal support policies: From 2003 to 2010, the central government arranged a cumulative total of more than 1.8 billion yuan in special funds, mainly used to support farmers' professional cooperatives in enhancing service functions and self-development capacity. Special fiscal funds for agricultural machinery purchase subsidies give priority to farmers' professional cooperatives.

4. Support policies for agriculture-related projects: In 2010, the Ministry of Agriculture and 7 other ministries and commissions decided that for agriculture-related projects suitable for farmers' professional cooperatives to undertake, farmers' professional cooperatives should be included in the application scope. Where farmers' professional cooperatives have not yet been clearly included in the application scope, they should be included as soon as possible and application conditions should be clarified. For newly added agriculture-related projects in the future, as long as they are suitable for farmers' professional cooperatives to undertake, farmers' professional cooperatives should be included in the application scope and application conditions should be clarified. At present, relevant agriculture-related projects such as the Ministry of Agriculture's vegetable and horticultural crop standard garden creation, large-scale livestock and poultry breeding farms (communities), aquatic healthy aquaculture demonstration farm creation, the new round of the “vegetable basket” project, high-yield grain creation, standardized demonstration projects and national comprehensive agricultural development projects have all begun to entrust qualified relevant farmers' professional cooperatives to undertake them.

5. Agricultural product circulation policies: Encourage and guide cooperatives to connect production (supply) and sales with various market entities such as large urban chain supermarkets, university canteens and agricultural input production enterprises.

6. Talent support policies: Since 2011, the modern agricultural talent support plan has been organized and implemented, training 1,500 cooperative leaders each year. Continue to include talent training for farmers' professional cooperatives in the “Sunshine Project”, focusing on training cooperative leaders, accounting personnel and grassroots cooperative instructors. Encourage college student village officials to participate in and lead cooperatives.

2016 Agricultural Cooperative Subsidy Policies

1. Comprehensive agricultural development industrialized operation projects, land improvement projects

[Accepting unit] All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, Comprehensive Agricultural Development Office

[Support scope] Planting and breeding bases and facility agriculture projects, processing projects for agricultural products such as cotton, fruits and vegetables, tea, edible fungi, flowers, sericulture, livestock and poultry, and circulation facility projects such as storage and preservation and origin wholesale markets.

[Subsidy amount] 800,000 to 1.6 million yuan.

[Application time] March

2. Transformation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements

[Accepting unit] Science and Technology Department, Science and Technology Commission

[Support scope] Transformation of major technological achievements in agriculture-related industries such as modern seed industry, food processing, feed, biological pesticides, agricultural machinery and equipment, biomass utilization and bioenergy, forest product processing, rural environmental protection and rural logistics.

[Subsidy amount] 1 million to 3 million yuan.

[Application time] April.

3. Agricultural product promotion project funds

[Accepting unit] Ministry of Agriculture

[Support scope] Mainly used for organizing overseas market promotion of agricultural products, carrying out domestic market production-sales matchmaking, online promotion and market development.

[Subsidy amount] 100,000 to 800,000 yuan.

[Application time] June.

4. National Modern Agriculture Demonstration Zone drought- and flood-resistant standard farmland demonstration project

[Accepting unit] Ministry of Agriculture

[Support scope] Select national modern agriculture demonstration zones outside the 800 major grain-producing counties (farms) determined in the national plan for adding 100 billion jin of grain production capacity to build drought- and flood-resistant standard farmland demonstration projects.

[Subsidy amount] 600 yuan/mu, with a single project not exceeding 10,000 mu.

[Application time] May

5. Support for “vegetable basket” product production projects

[Accepting unit] Ministry of Agriculture

[Support scope] Focus on supporting vegetables (including edible fungi and watermelon and muskmelon types), with appropriate consideration for fruits and tea. Each facility base shall be more than 200 mu (area within facilities, the same below), and each open-field base shall be more than 1,000 mu.

[Subsidy amount] 5,000 yuan/mu, not exceeding 3 million yuan.

[Application time] July to August

6. Seed engineering and plant protection engineering reserve projects

[Accepting unit] Ministry of Agriculture

[Support scope] Engaged in intensive vegetable seedling cultivation for more than 3 years, already having the capacity to cultivate more than 5 million high-quality age-appropriate strong vegetable seedlings annually, and no problems of fake or inferior seedlings in the past 3 years.

[Subsidy amount] Within 5 million yuan of central funds.

[Application time] May to June

7. Pilot projects for leading enterprises driving industrial development and “one county, one specialty” industrial development

[Accepting unit] Ministry of Finance

[Support scope] Public welfare project construction such as agricultural infrastructure, improved seed breeding, agricultural pollutant prevention and control, comprehensive utilization of waste and socialized service systems, as well as promotion and application of new products and new technologies and intensive processing of agricultural products.

[Subsidy amount] 5 million to 8 million yuan.

[Application time] October

8. Support for general industrialized projects

[Accepting unit] Ministry of Finance

[Support scope] Planting and breeding bases for agricultural products, economic forests and facility agriculture planting, livestock and poultry and aquaculture, processing of agricultural products, and circulation facilities such as storage and preservation and origin wholesale markets.

[Subsidy amount] 500,000 to 1.5 million yuan.

[Application time] October

9. Subsidy project for primary processing of agricultural products at origin

[Accepting unit] Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance

[Support scope] Focus on supporting farmers and farmers' professional cooperatives in building origin primary processing facilities such as potato storage cellars, ventilated fruit and vegetable warehouses, cold storage warehouses and drying rooms.

[Subsidy amount] Subsidy after construction, depending on specific circumstances.

[Application time] September

10. New Network Project

[Accepting unit] All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives

[Support scope] Renovation of agricultural and sideline products and agricultural input distribution centers, chain operation outlets and wholesale trading markets, renovation of cold chain logistics systems for agricultural and sideline products, and public welfare service projects such as collection and release of market information for agricultural and sideline products and agricultural inputs, agrochemical service systems and quality and safety service systems.

[Subsidy amount] 2 million to 4 million yuan.

[Application time] April

11. Poverty alleviation projects

[Accepting unit] State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development

[Support scope] Agricultural product processing industries with strong capacity to drive farmers' income growth.

[Subsidy amount] 5 million yuan.

[Application time] Irregular

12. Application and approval for modern agriculture park pilots

[Accepting unit] Comprehensive Agricultural Development Office

[Support scope] Various functional zones such as high-quality and high-yield grain production bases, large-scale planting bases for famous, special, excellent and new economic crops (or forest and fruit industries), intensive processing and cold chain logistics of grain and other agricultural products, and ecological sightseeing and leisure agriculture.

[Subsidy amount] 10 million to 20 million yuan.

[Application time] May

13. Water-saving supporting renovation projects for medium-sized irrigation districts

[Accepting unit] Comprehensive Agricultural Development Office

[Support scope] Major grain-producing areas, where the irrigation district is located in or crosses comprehensive agricultural development counties (cities, districts), with an irrigation area of 50,000 to 300,000 mu.

[Subsidy amount] The total cost of a single project shall not exceed 20 million yuan.

[Application time] August

14. Comprehensive agricultural development industrialized operation projects

[Accepting unit] Comprehensive Agricultural Development Office

[Support scope] Planting and breeding bases and facility agriculture projects, processing projects for agricultural products such as cotton, fruits and vegetables, tea, edible fungi, flowers, sericulture, livestock and poultry, and circulation facility projects such as storage and preservation and origin wholesale markets

[Subsidy amount] 3 million yuan

[Application time] June

15. Horticultural improved seed breeding and production demonstration base projects

[Accepting unit] Comprehensive Agricultural Development Office

[Support scope] Varieties with obvious comparative advantages, specialty advantages and export advantages, good economic benefits, strong radiation and driving capacity, and a significant role in promoting income growth of surrounding people.

[Subsidy amount] 1.5 million yuan

[Application time] June to August

16. Cold chain logistics and modern logistics projects

[Accepting unit] Provincial Development and Reform Commissions, Commerce Departments

[Support scope] Storage facilities and transport vehicles.

[Subsidy amount] 1 million yuan

[Application time] July