Farmers from Van Phong cooperative in Cau Bo hamlet, Van Phong commune (Nho Quan, Ninh Binh). The cooperative has been successful in growing safe vegetables. (Illustrative image. Source: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Vietnam must strivehard to achieve the target of 15,000 effective cooperatives by 2020, accordingto Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue.
Production connectivity and sales of farm produce play asignificant role in developing agriculture, he said.
Connectivity will help increase interests of theinvolved parties, especially farmers, while limiting small-scale production andexpanding goods production, he added.
As of June 2018, Vietnam had 47 cooperatives alliances,including nearly 20,000 cooperatives with charter capital of 34 trillion VND(1.46 billion USD).
The country aims to have 15,000 effectivecooperatives by 2020, but few cooperatives have built development plans andhave enough capital to expand production.
Surveys conducted in Mekong Delta provincesshowed that the number of cooperatives with access to loans is limited.
According to the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance(VCA), the country is home to 48 cooperative development funds with chartercapital of more than 800 billion VND (34.4 million USD).
Many cooperatives, even when they have capitalto develop production, fail to build effective business plans. This is a big problemin the field, said Tran Minh Hai, director of the cooperative economy trainingand consulting centre at Institute of Management for Agriculture and RuralDevelopment II.
To overcome capital difficulties, somecooperatives have connected with businesses to create revenue for theiroperation.
Among the more than 12,000 agriculturalcooperatives, a mere 190 have applied high technology in production.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment Tran Thanh Nam suggested localities establish consulting groups tosupport agricultural cooperatives with technology.
He recommended strengthening links betweenbusinesses and cooperatives while encouraging organisations to transferscience-technology and provide capital assistance for cooperatives.
Over the years, to build a strong system ofcooperatives, the VCA has proposed cooperatives join production value chains,which could help them address difficulties in production and supply ofproducts.
This model will also help improve the quality ofhuman resources and the management capacity of the cooperative managing boards.-VNA
VNA
