Promoting the development of agricultural cooperatives and linking agricultural food production and consumption

On August 18^th, 2018, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development organized an online conference to execute the Decree No. 98/2018 of the Government and Decision 461 of the Prime Minister on promoting the development of 15,000 effective agricultural cooperatives and cooperative alliances and linking agricultural food production and consumption. The Conference was chaired by Politburo member, Deputy Prime Minister, Head of the Steering Committee for Renovation and Development of Collective Economy, Vuong Dinh Hue.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), H.E. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong affirmed the outstanding achievements in agricultural production in recent years. However, the linkage in production and consumption of agricultural products is limited. Therefore, in order to promote the consolidation of agricultural cooperatives and improve production efficiency, to speed up the restructuring of agriculture and new rural development, the Government has issued Decree No. 98/2018/ND-CP dated 05/07/2018 on incentive policy for development of linkages in production and consumption of agricultural products. The Decree is an important solution to promote the agricultural restructuring and new rural development.

Also at the Conference, MARD and the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance reported on the implementation of the plan to execute the Prime Minister's Decision No. 461/QD-TTg dated 27/04/2018 on the Project to "develop 15,000 effective agricultural cooperatives and cooperative alliances operating effectively by 2020". It was emphasized that strong action must be taken in the dissolution and operation conversion of more than 700 weak cooperatives, which have ceased operation; boost the operational efficiency of more than 6,400 cooperatives which remain ineffective in their operation; Guide cooperatives to build production and business plans to meet requirements in the new situation; Maintain and improve the operation quality cooperatives that are operating effectively; Facilitate the establishment of new agricultural cooperatives and support them to operate effectively.

At the meeting, Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong, said that 15,000 cooperatives must become hubs linking with businesses, thus forming a system connecting 8.6 million farmers and cooperatives with businesses to create a closed production cycle from production to raw material, processing and trade promotion on the basis of developing value chains of agricultural commodities.

Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong affirmed that if cooperatives do the right thing, voluntarily, in the direction of the market, this model will surely become an important element in agricultural restructuring.

Concluding the Conference, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue proposed 6 groups of solutions to improve the operation quality of cooperatives, which include: Human resources development, strengthening the state management of cooperatives; enhancing synergies of resources of the Central, local and national target programs; classification of cooperatives to provide appropriate support. The State Bank of Vietnam shall direct agricultural banks to allocate capital for agriculture, farmers and rural areas. Localities should pay attention to supporting infrastructure development and providing land use incentives to improve agricultural production and consumption linkages for cooperative members, contributing to improving the people's life.