At present, there are 7,325 farmer cooperatives in Dezhou City, Shandong Province, ranking among the top in the province. They are growing rapidly at an average annual rate of 20%. Their cooperation areas are constantly expanding and the level of cooperation is constantly improving. Problems such as shortages and unreasonable benefit distribution mechanisms have also become increasingly prominent. Only by seeking the best winning points for all parties can we break through bottlenecks and achieve better development of cooperatives.

Cooperatives have become the "backing" for farmers

In recent years, professional farmer cooperatives have sprung up in Dezhou City. After investigating some cooperatives, the author truly understood the service and leading role of cooperatives in the development of modern agriculture.

The vegetable trading market of Dongcui Vegetable Production Cooperative in Ningjin County is a busy trading scene every day. Vehicles filled with various fresh vegetables come and go constantly. The market covering an area of ??more than 200 acres is crowded with people. Merchants and vendors who come to trade.

“In the past, I was busy dealing with the ups and downs of the market all day long. Not only could vegetables not be sold at a good price, but storage, processing and transportation were also difficult.”

Member of Dongcui Cooperative. Li Cheng has a deep understanding of the disadvantages of decentralized production from household to household. Now, by providing pre-production, mid-production and post-production services, the cooperative has improved the standardized planting level of vegetables, established its own brand, and established a stable production-marketing relationship.

When Dongcui Cooperative was established, it had only 107 members and the vegetable market covered an area of ??more than 20 acres. Over the past few years, the cooperative has been changing every year, with fixed assets increasing to more than 6 million yuan. Businessmen from other places have come here to do business, and it has driven more than 500,000 acres of vegetable production in more than 10 surrounding towns.

In addition to the traditional fields of breeding and planting, Dezhou cooperatives are gradually expanding into the service industry and other fields. They play a huge role in providing social services and promoting large-scale operations, effectively alleviating the shortage of young and strong labor force in rural areas. problem.

Pingyuan County Hongfa Agricultural Machinery Cooperative, which was just established last year, has 29 technical service personnel, 15 mechanical operating experts, and more than 40 sets (sets) of various agricultural machinery. In just one year, the agricultural machinery operations in the service area of ??the community have achieved unified deep plowing, unified sowing, unified pest control, unified irrigation, and unified grain sales. It serves more than 2,000 farmers throughout the year, with an operating area of ??more than 30,000 acres.

Currently, Dezhou City has established 7,325 farmers' professional cooperatives, covering many fields such as planting, animal husbandry, and service industries. It has 200,000 members, driving more than 300,000 farmers, and increasing the average household income by more than 3,000 yuan. . Cooperatives have become the “backing force” that leads farmers to enter the market and increase farmers’ income.

The development "bottleneck" needs to be broken through

While developing vigorously, cooperatives also face many development bottlenecks such as financing difficulties and lack of talents.

Financing difficulties are a common development problem faced by cooperatives in Dezhou City. At present, the main financial institutions that can provide loan services to cooperatives are rural credit cooperatives. However, the loan conditions are relatively high, and small mortgage loans can only be obtained in the personal name of the chairman or leader, with high interest rates and short terms. "Profits are okay, but once the project operation does not go smoothly and something goes wrong, individuals simply cannot afford such risks." Many cooperative leaders lamented. The shortage of funds makes it impossible for many cooperatives to compete with professional cooperative economic organizations that have a high degree of industrialization, intensification, scale and commercialization in their production organizations.

For a cooperative to develop, it is important to select the right leader. Many of the existing farmers' professional cooperatives in Dezhou City are led by local capable people who know technology, are good at business, can manage, and have cohesiveness. But it is not easy to select the right leader. If the leader is not of high quality, has outdated knowledge, and lags in information, it will easily lead to the collapse of the cooperative.

The lack of brands is also one of the shortcomings of the development of cooperatives in Dezhou City. At present, more than 300 cooperatives in the city have their own registered trademarks, and only 64 brands have obtained the "three-grade" certification of agricultural products. Generally speaking, there are still few professional cooperatives with brands. Most of them focus more on early production and not enough on later market development. In the long run, only by cultivating and developing professional cooperative brands, using brand advantages to enter sales terminals, and connecting small production with large markets can agricultural products be popular and popular.

Compared with farmers' professional cooperatives in developed areas such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Dezhou cooperatives are still in their infancy, with a low starting point, small scale, weak economic strength, and low profits. Many areas need to be standardized and improved.

A reasonable profit distribution mechanism is the key

During the investigation, many industry insiders said that the profit distribution mechanism of cooperatives is particularly important. It is directly related to the vital interests of members and ultimately determines the cooperative’s future and destiny.

Take Dongcui Cooperative as an example. After establishing the vegetable wholesale market, it once suffered from the lack of stable quantity and high-quality vegetable supply. The shareholders of the cooperative increasingly realized that the only way to attract more farmers is to attract more farmers. Only by integrating land into cooperatives and integrating farmers with cooperatives can they achieve rapid development.

As a result, the cooperative decided to rent farmers' land at a rent higher than the market price to attract farmers to join the cooperative to grow vegetables. And stipulates that the surplus is distributed according to the transaction volume. Entry into the cooperative is voluntary and withdrawal is free, freeing farmers from worries.

How to divide the money after making it? For many years, the cooperative has insisted on using 20% ??of the surplus as a provident fund to expand reproduction, and the remaining 80% as secondary rebates based on shareholder investment and transaction volume. This profit distribution mechanism allows cooperatives to develop rapidly.

Similar to the success of Dongcui Cooperative, the existing 16 national-level model cooperatives and 11 provincial-level model cooperatives in Dezhou City have good development momentum and strong driving ability. It can be said that they are a model for the development of cooperatives in Dezhou City.

“Analyzing these models, it is not difficult to find that the success of a cooperative depends on whether the cooperative and farmers can form a close community of interests. Only by acting in accordance with the Farmers’ Professional Cooperative Law and dividing the money clearly Only by increasing the income of cooperative members can more farmers be attracted to join the cooperative, and only by bringing benefits together can the cooperative expand its scale," said the person in charge of the relevant departments of the Dezhou Municipal Agriculture Bureau.

With the continuous increase in number, farmers' professional cooperatives have become an important organizational carrier for agricultural industrialization in Dezhou City and the main bridge for farmers to enter the market. Adhering to the principles of "developing while regulating" and "regulating while developing, developing while regulating", many aspects including the benefit distribution mechanism are being continuously standardized and improved, and Dezhou City cooperatives are improving from quantity to quality.

Take multiple measures to solve development problems

The development prospects are broad, and at the same time they face many problems such as funds and talents. As a new thing, the development of farmers' professional cooperatives requires strong support from multiple departments. While optimizing the external living environment of cooperatives, cooperatives should also strive to improve their own quality.

In order to solve the funding needs for the further development of cooperatives, industry insiders said that fiscal, taxation and financial policies are needed. On the one hand, preferential fiscal and taxation policies must be used to increase the internal capital accumulation of cooperatives. Governments at all levels must arrange fiscal budgets to support farmers' professional cooperatives in developing information, technology, training, marketing and other services. Entrust qualified cooperatives to implement various fiscal support projects and poverty alleviation projects. At the same time, ensure the implementation of preferential tax policies for production, processing, circulation, etc. that cooperatives should enjoy. On the other hand, a good external financing environment is used to improve the cooperative's ability to raise funds. It is necessary to lower the loan threshold for cooperatives and adopt various forms to expand financing channels for cooperatives. As for Dezhou City, when conditions are ripe, it will try to establish a rural capital mutual aid cooperative to solve the problem of capital shortage among farmers.

In addition, relevant departments should work together to solve the difficulties such as electricity, land, and technology faced by the development of cooperatives. It is also extremely necessary to follow up on services to cooperatives in a timely manner.

In response to problems such as irregular internal management and small scale of cooperatives, industry experts suggest that we should continue to increase the training of cooperative leaders and members, and strengthen the guidance and supervision of cooperatives. Attract college students to join in the development of cooperatives. Where conditions permit, federations of similar professional cooperatives can be established to guide and support alliances and cooperation among cooperatives and promote the development of cooperatives to a higher level.