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Council of Agriculture invests 100 million yuan to encourage 53 farmer cooperative enterprises to make profits

General News By Emily Carter 0 views

The Soil and Water Conservation Bureau of the Council of Agriculture announced today (the 22nd) that over the next two years it will invest more than 100 million yuan to guide 53 rural enterprises and agricultural cooperatives in adopting the social enterprise concept. Each enterprise can receive up to 3 million yuan in funding assistance, allowing rural enterprises to make a profit and then return the surplus to the community, driving rural community development. This funding can be used to hire expert consultants, or purchase key equipment, expand multi-channel marketing, or recruit professional managers.

Shi'an Community Cooperative: Cooperative Production, Surplus for Community Care

Among the rural community enterprises selected so far, two agricultural cooperatives already operate as social enterprises, giving back to the elderly and schoolchildren in the community, and using a cooperative approach to raise local farmers' income. The Shi'an Community Cooperative in Houbi District, Tainan City is one such example.

The shareholder members of the Shi'an Community Cooperative are all local residents. The Shi'an Community Cooperative not only guides members in friendly farming, but also guarantees the purchase of the pesticide-free rice grown by members at a price 40% above market price, and further provides members with agricultural supplies below market price, thereby lowering farmers' production costs.

Besides caring for members, Liao Yuliang, who serves concurrently as chairman of the Shi'an Community Cooperative and head of Shi'an Village, said, "The most important thing is still giving back to the community, caring for the elderly and children in the community!" Each year the cooperative allocates more than 20% of its surplus for community public welfare services such as meal delivery for the elderly and a community medical escort vehicle.

"Not only that, we also let the elderly earn pocket money!" Liao Yuliang laughed, saying that member farmers are responsible for growing pesticide-free Shi'an rice, while for the packaging work, grandfathers and grandmothers in the community are mobilized to help. "Look at those elderly folks in their sixties and seventies, they work quite fast too!" More than a dozen grandfathers and grandmothers can on average pack 18 to 20 boxes of Shi'an rice per day, earning 1,800 yuan to 2,000 yuan a day. "After everyone splits it, each person still has 200 yuan left."

Liao Yuliang said that actually the elderly don't ask for much. As long as they have space to move around, someone to chat with them, and pocket money to spend when they want to eat something or go out and have fun, they are very happy.