Farmers take care of pigs at the Minh Loc Co-operative in Ha Tinh's Cam Xuyen District. Provincial party cells and communes will review all agricultural co-operatives following orders from the VFF. — VNA/VNS Photo Quang Quyet

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — By the end of the year, provincial party cells and communes must review all agricultural co-operatives in their areas that volunteer to develop new co-operative model, Professor Nguyen Thien Nhan, President of Viet Nam Fatherland Front (VFF), told a meeting involving concerned agencies in Ha Noi last Saturday.

Nhan said that until the end of August, ministries and agencies concerned with the Viet Nam Co-operatives Alliance and Viet Nam Farmers' Union have to focus on finding and promoting top co-operative models so that when provinces prepare for their upcoming Party congresses, these good practices can be incorporated into documents.

"By the end of the year, the number of new-style co-operatives and their location must be available," he said.

"Make sure that every agricultural co-operative has at least one agricultural engineer who is skilful, but also has a good theoretical understanding of how a farm co-op works.

Nhan said that financial matters in co-operatives had to be clarified and related regulations reviewed to enable proposals to be made to the Ministry of Finance during the next two to three years.

These would include funding for new-style co-operatives to grow and to renovate old co-operatives.

The VFF President said he hoped that new-style cooperatives would enable Viet Nam to enter a new period of substantial agricultural change, which will address the weaknesses faced during the last 30 years.

"New-style co-operatives should help create a breakthrough in developing models in which the farmer would still be the owner of agricultural production and business while receiving support from a parent co-operative and the State to hone their competitive edge and meet the needs of international trade," he said.

He said that new-style co-operatives would benefit 10 million farm households when they were established.

The meeting was told that the country now had 10,339 agricultural co-operatives active in 9,000 communes throughout the nation. The co-ops had 6.7 million household members, accounting for four per cent of the nation's total farm households.

However, it was reported that only 1,000 agricultural co-operatives do well.

Annually, an average of 200 agricultural cooperatives are set up while 20 per cent undergo restructuring in line with the 2012 Cooperative Law to "get healthier".

The meeting, titled "How to build new-style agricultural co-operatives in the periods?" was organised by the VFF, the Party Central Committee's Commission for Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Viet Nam's Farmers Union. — VNS