农民组织起来才有市场话语权
Hai Nan: Only Organized Farmers Have Their Own Voice to Market.
By Sun Yueming, Wu Mian, Song Xiangda
Source: Hai Nan Daily
Few days ago, banana planter Zhang Qing shook his hands tightly with Zhang Lianqiong who is the member of fruit and vegetable transportation and marketing cooperative and said “ Thanks to the purchase by cooperative members or all my banana have to be ripped in front of my face and you really saved my work.”
At the mean time, betel nut cooperative member Wang Xiayang was busying with the training for the “yellows” preservation to planters through leading the technologists visit different villages.
There are many similar agricultural cooperatives are doing their business in the fields or villages. They connect the market information from one side to the farming lands from another side. They work for offer the useful information and defuse financial risks as well as become the efficient and effective assistant of government.
“I will take care of the risk.”
The rumor of banana of March 31st made a great threaten for banana planters and the cooperative of Cheng Mai County resolute without any delay to writ a petition to every districts through 12 express mails and 4 e-mails as well as decline the current situation to the State Council, the Ministry of Agriculture, provincial Party Committee, Provincial Government, Agricultural Office and the Media.
Lately, when the litchi’s price went down, the cooperative organized 120 members to do joint effort and divided into 12 groups for purchasing farmers’ litchi through one hundred thousand per member and totally got 12,000,000 yuan.
Xie Hongyi, member of the cooperative purchased Zhang Zhongjun’s litchi for 2.5 yuan per gram. “Farmers have very limited ability to defuse the risk. We have to take care of it for them” Xie Hongyi saidi. For cooperative’s reputation and planters’ benefit he had to purchase them all, even suffer a deficit.
Fruit and vegetable transportation and marketing cooperative of Cheng Mai founded in 2000 and it only had 96 members. But now, it has 360 members. They settled 300 sales spots in 21 provinces around the natioin. The amount of transportation and marketing of fruit and vegetable takes 90% of the county’s total volume. 200 mu planting fields have become the testing units of new species; once they get succeed they will widespread them to farmers.
“We won’t sell if it is cheaper than marketing price.”
Betel nut cooperative of Qiong Hai has over 100 members. In the year before last year, some betel nut traders from other areas came to Qiong Hai to do price war and they brought the price down from 9yuan/gram to 7 yuean/gram. Cooperative came forward and said, “ We won’t sell if it is cheaper than marketing price.” At last, they raised the price up to 11yuan/ gram.
In that year, farmers of Hai Nan earned more than one hundred million yuan with the successful price defense.
On November 1st, 1999, Watermelon Specialized Cooperative of Wen Chang founded, it has 98 members but now it has developed to a provincial cooperative with 438 members. They have over thirty hundred thousand mu watermelon fields in 10 cities or counties of Hai Nan province; the production can reach eight hundred thousand tons and output value can get 1.3 billion yuan. They firstly sent more than 30 planters go abroad to Viet Nam to contract 3000 mu fields for watermelon planting.
“Only farmers be organized, strength they gain, right of saying they gain; it is difficult for them to face the enormous market if they only rely on one weak prospect family.” Famous expert of China’s agriculture, rural areas and farmers, Wen Tiejun said.
“They are seedlings that need caring.”
Professor of China Renmin University, Tong Zhihui who invested in Zhe Jiang and Hai Nan said by a interview that although cooperative in Hai Nan is not better than Zhe Jiang’s, they are facing the similar problems: capital, technology and circulation are drifting way from the cooperative.
“ Keeping fresh needs capital and technology; disease cure needs capital and technology as well; but these resources are under the control of agriculture, technology, supply-marketing and other departments of government. Presently their cooperation is passive and low-efficiency. If farmers can gain profit through this, it is compulsive to bring these three items into cooperative’s system and do further integration.”
Besides, cooperative needs support. It is reported that Zhe Jiang Province arranged 83,000,000 yuan to support every kind of agricultural cooperatives from 2001 to 2006. In Shan Dong province, just Qing Dao city brought 6 million yuan annually for special purpose to support cooperative.
“ The development of agricultural cooperatives proves that cooperatives have great vitality. Meanwhile, They are seedlings that need caring.” Tong Zhihui said. “Law of the People's Republic of China on Specialized Farmers Cooperatives definitely will let every kind of cooperatives play more and more important roles in the future. Today is just a beginning. ”
