Shanxi Farmers' Organizations Start with Dancing: A Study Tour of Rural China (1)
Editor's note:
Wei-Hsuan, who studies at the College of Agriculture of National Taiwan University, also cares about many rural issues. She can be found in rural villages everywhere, and she has also tried growing rice with friends; she has never been absent from gatherings that oppose land expropriation and resist the forceful plundering of rural resources.
Last winter, Wei-Hsuan represented the Taiwan Rural Front and traveled to the Liang Shuming Rural Reconstruction Center in Beijing, China, beginning a two-month exchange and visit program. Her reflections on the visit and on Taiwan's current situation have been distilled into three articles, which will be published one after another on News & Market. (To read the other articles in the series, please see the link at the end.)
Introduction
In the spring of 2011, friends from Hong Kong, China's "Partnerships for Community Development (Partnerships for Community Development, PCD)" met the "Taiwan Rural Front" in Taiwan. After an initial acquaintance, PCD of Hong Kong, China, hoped to support partners from the "Taiwan Rural Front" in carrying out an internship and exchange on the Chinese mainland. So in the winter of 2011, I represented the "Taiwan Rural Front" and traveled to the Liang Shuming Rural Reconstruction Center in Beijing, China, beginning a two-month exchange and visit program; among these visits I also visited the Yongji City Farmers' Association in Shanxi Province, and this was the beginning of my deeper reflection on rural villages and agriculture....
From dancing women to the farmers' association
The Yongji City Farmers' Association was the first farmers' association in China to register under the Civil Affairs Bureau, and it can also be said to be the place where spontaneous farmers' organizations on the mainland are currently most maturely developed. The Yongji City Farmers' Association formally registered in June 2004, with nearly four thousand members, covering 43 villages under two townships. After more than ten years of continuous experimentation and adjustment, the entire association is currently divided into twelve sections, including the science and technology service center, the Hongniang handicraft cooperative, the organic agriculture federation, the youth farm, the eco-homeland council, the women's culture and reading activity center, the elderly recreation service center, the community school, finance, logistics, the computer service center and the community service center. Because it is located beside the Yellow River floodplain, the crops in this surrounding area are mainly cotton, asparagus, corn and wheat, along with fruit trees such as apple, peach, apricot and walnut.
The association's women's library, filled with Rural Women magazine and all kinds of family-related books
Organic Agriculture Federation (11 full-time staff):
Its main work is promoting organic cultivation in Zhaizi Village and surrounding villages. The crop currently mainly promoted is organic cotton, because a stable Hong Kong cooperative channel has already been found to purchase organic cotton, so the staff have begun going into other villages, chatting with farmers who have not yet switched to organic cotton and encouraging them to grow organic cotton. Farmers willing to cooperate will sign contracts with the farmers' association; the organic federation provides cooperating farming households with organic, non-GMO cotton seed and fertilizer that is much cheaper than outside, instruction in organic farming techniques, cotton purchasing, plowing and other agricultural machinery services, and during busy farming periods also provides technical guidance or spreads ideas in farmers' fields, so the scope of its work is quite broad. For this reason, the work of the organic federation is in fact closely inseparable from the agricultural materials center and the youth farm.
Youth farm:
Because Zheng Bing believes that young people who come to work at the farmers' association should also be close to the land, like agriculture and rural villages, and have some understanding of agricultural production, the youth farm arose from this idea. The youth farm is like the farmers' association's own field; there they try out organic production, collect local varieties and non-GMO crop seeds for trial planting and seed saving, and are also responsible for collecting goods after the crops are harvested.
Community school (3 full-time staff):
It is responsible for organizing learning activities for the farmers' association's staff, divided into a youth class (those under 35) and a comprehensive quality class (those 35 and above), which use different methods such as games, study, reading, and discussion and sharing to carry out learning. Normally there is fixed study one day each week, but when the village is busier or there is another major activity, classes are held flexibly, and sometimes the two classes study together. Villagers outside the association may join in the learning as long as they are willing.
Computer service center (1 full-time staff):
Every full-time staff member of the association is equipped with a small laptop, and every employee is required to be able to do basic computer operations and send and receive mail, so this section is responsible for helping employees of different ages learn basic computer operations, and in coordination with the community school's courses, each youth class and comprehensive quality class includes a computer lesson, improving the computer skills of the staff as a whole and handling computer-related problems.
Finance (5 full-time staff):
Responsible for the association's overall accounts, expenses and employee salaries.
Logistics (4 full-time staff):
Responsible for the association employees' food and lodging needs and other miscellaneous affairs.
Community service center (2 full-time staff):
Composed of Zheng Bing and her assistant, also called the association office, it is responsible for integrating and coordinating the work of all sections.
Further reading