Growing organic vegetables at an agriculture co-operative in Kien Giang Province’s Rach Gia City (Photo: VNA) NguyenGiang Thanh, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said theprovince will focus on improving the operational efficiency of cooperatives.
Itwill provide professional skills in management, production and business formembers of cooperatives and co-operative groups.
Itwill also organise trade promotion activities for the products of cooperativesand co-operative groups, which will be provided a part of the cost ofparticipating in trade fairs, exhibitions and forums at home and abroad.
Theprovince will help cooperatives and cooperative groups with brand namesand origin traceability, and provide them with a part of thecost of renting places for showing and selling their products.
Theprovince will offer support to four cooperatives to build facilities foragricultural processing this year. They include the Tan Huy HoangAquaculture Breeding Co-operative in Ha Tien City, the Go Quao Youth OrganicAgriculture Cooperative and the Thuan Phat Handicraft Cooperative in Go QuaoDistrict, and the Hieu Phat Agriculture Service Cooperative in Vinh ThuanDistrict.
TanHuy Hoang, for instance, will be given financial support to build aworkshop for initial processing of products and packaging of products, aswell as other production facilities.
KienGiang, the country’s largest rice producer, has 2,228 cooperative groups,including 1,989 agriculture cooperative groups which have a total farming areaof nearly 72,000ha and create jobs for 7,000 labourers.
Manycooperative groups rotate rice cultivation and shrimp breeding in the samefields, engage in aquaculture, breed cows, make handicraft products, growflowers, or provide irrigation services.
Theyoperate effectively and can be developed into cooperatives, according tothe province’s Cooperative Alliance.
Underthe 2012 Cooperative Law, a cooperative group must have at least threemembers, and a cooperative should have at least seven members.
Theprovince has 462 cooperatives, including 410 agriculture cooperatives, up 200 cooperativesagainst 2016.
Theagriculture cooperatives cultivate rice and other crops on a total of 59,517ha,accounting for 12.8 percent of the province’s total farming land, according tothe province’s Co-operative Alliance.
Thecooperatives have helped their members to apply advanced farming techniques andreduce the number of input materials used in agricultural production. Thishas increased the income of their members by 700,000 – 3.2 million (30 –140 USD) per hectare a crop.
Manycooperatives have developed value chains for the province’s key productsas well as linkages with companies that buy products.
TheTan Hung Agriculture Cooperative in Chau Thanh District’s Giuc Tuong Communehas cooperated with companies to grow rice and secure outlets for its members.
LeMinh Hai, chairman of Tan Hung, said the cooperative’s rice growing areas havefarm contracts and the members no longer worry about outlets.
“Thelife of cooperative members has improved and no one is poor,” he said.
TheRach Gia Organic Agriculture Cooperative in Rach Gia City rotates ricecultivation and shrimp breeding under organic standards on a totalarea of 50ha in An Bien District.
Thecooperative’s three rice products - Kim Thien Loc Nang Huong rice, Kim ThienLoc red brown rice and Kim Thien Loc black brown rice - have been certified asfour-star OCOP products under the country’s one commune – one product (OCOP)programme in which the highest level is five stars.
Thecooperative produces 125 – 130 tonnes of the three rice products a year andsells them mostly to supermarkets.
TranThanh Dung, chairman of the province’s Cooperative Alliance, said the provincewill develop cooperatives that produce the province’s key productswith value chains and high export value.
“Theprovince encourages cooperatives in sectors and fields suited to theeconomic zoning plan and with linkages [with companies] to producehigh-quality products with brand names for export,” he said.
Theprovince plans to establish 15 new cooperatives, including nine agriculture cooperatives,and 50 cooperatives groups this year.
Theprovince aims to have more than 85 percent of its cooperatives see profitsthis year./.
VNA
