Breakthroughs should be made to improve the cooperatives of agricultural and rural sectors

According to provincial Cooperatives’ Alliance, in 2002, there were only 97 cooperatives around the province, including 36 cooperatives that specialize in agricultural, service and rural sectors. Cooperative Law 2003 has clearly identified the operation and function of cooperatives and Cooperatives’ Alliance. The alliance has based on it to propose key roles such as strengthening current cooperatives to improve the effective operation of the cooperative economic sector and the cooperative associations. In the period 2008 – 2010, Cooperatives’ Alliance in association with departments, divisions and People’s Committees of districts, Long Khanh town and Bien Hoa city, went on strengthening all of the cooperative associations, including 62 agricultural cooperatives; 26 inactive cooperatives (including 19 agricultural cooperatives) were dissolved.74 cooperatives and 1 cooperatives’ alliance (including 29 agricultural cooperatives) were founded. After Cooperative Law has been effected for 9 years, there are now 222 cooperatives in the entire province (including 68 agricultural cooperatives and 1 cooperatives’ alliance) with the charter capital of above 1,000 billion dongs, more than 49,000 members and nearly 6.5 thousands of official laborers and more than 100,000 seasonal employees. The average income per capita is 16.6 million dongs each year.

Those cooperatives that involves in agriculture and related services has decided to expand and improve the quality of service supply for their members. These are fertilizer and pesticide supply, agricultural product procurement, seedling and animal feed trade, the administration of irrigation system and rural clean water works and forestation, etc. Those cooperatives like Xuan Phu animal husbandry, Xuan Tam aquaculture (Xuan Loc), Long Tho ornamental creatures (Nhon Trach), Bau Ham agricultural services (Trang Bom),...are outstanding examples for their adaptive abilities in the market environment. Several cooperatives have been aware of the importance of brand name and actively combined with relevant authorities to register their brand license and fruit safety standards like Suoi Lon mango (Xuan Loc), Tan Trieu grapefruit, Trang Dai safe vegetable (Bien Hoa city), endorsed with VietGap and GlobalGap certifications.

Specifically mentioning Suoi Lon Mango agriculture and services cooperatives (Xuan Hung commune, Xuan Loc district), since its establishment in 2007 with only 5 members and land size of above 15 hectares of mango, it now has an increase of 28 members and covers an area of above 100 ha. Mr. Nguyen The Bao, chief of the cooperative, emphasized that since the most concerned goal is to find the market for mangos on a basis of meeting partners’ requirements towards quantity and quality, the cooperative has been striving for obtaining endorsed VietGap certificate. After this attempt, the market for mangos is always secured.

Also, in recent periods, many agricultural cooperatives haven’t been working effectively due to many reasons such as low capital, limited knowledge of the management board, frequent change of the cooperative chief officer, passive production and business development orientation, unfeasible strategies and extreme reliance on governmental supports. Mr. Vo Van Vuong, chief officer of Truong An vegetable cooperative (Xuan Phu commune, Xuan Loc district) shared that the development of cooperatives needs the right steps and breakthroughs in both thoughts and actions. Meanwhile, the cooperative members’ willingness plays an important role.

Apparently, to make all of cooperatives, even those who specialize in agricultural sector, make sustainable development, regardless of governmental supports, cooperatives need to sketch out strategic developmental orientation to adapt every circumstances. Concurrently, these cooperatives have to be active to choose proper developmental models.

Reported by T.Canh, Translated by Minh Minh