The development path of agricultural industrialization, a successful classic case?

Huaxi village

Farmers can plant land, but they don't necessarily sell it. In order to protect the interests of farmers and ensure the steady growth of agricultural products supply, there are various cooperatives serving farmers in rural Germany.

In the face of ruthless market risks, the power of a single farmer is extremely small. German farmers realized that only by uniting can they produce joint efforts and better safeguard their own interests. There are many kinds of agricultural cooperatives in Germany, with a wide range of business fields and perfect systems. On the basis of industry and regional cooperatives, there are cross-regional cooperatives and even national associations. Cooperatives can be roughly divided into three categories: first, processing and circulation; Second, supporting services, such as seed identification, feed, fertilizer, agricultural machinery and equipment and technical training; The third is finance. Germany's rural cooperative finance is very developed, with various forms of credit cooperatives, and farmers can get preferential loans with lower interest rates than ordinary banks.

Various forms of agricultural cooperatives are mutually beneficial non-governmental economic organizations in which farmers participate on a completely voluntary basis and are managed by farmers themselves. In Germany, vegetable farmers, fruit farmers, food and agriculture, and specialized cattle farmers have all set up their own cooperatives. Participants pay a lump sum of money to the cooperative according to their own land area, which is mainly used for the basic construction of the cooperative. For example, building factories, refrigerating rooms, buying refrigerators and transporting vehicles. The government actively supports the establishment of cooperatives, and generally receives 25% of the total investment from the government. During the harvest season, farmers send their agricultural products to cooperatives, and for farmers who are far away from cooperatives, cooperatives send special personnel to collect them from farmers. Cooperatives are responsible for sorting and packaging with their own equipment, and then the sales staff of cooperatives send all kinds of agricultural products to major wholesale markets and supermarkets according to the contract. In the peak season of vegetable and fruit production, conditional cooperative societies quickly store or process some products into cans and sell them in the off-season. During the slack season, the relevant personnel of the cooperative constantly visit major supermarkets and wholesale shopping malls, and often go to neighboring countries to understand the market conditions and help farmers make planting plans for the next year. In addition, cooperatives also make detailed plans for the purchase, sowing, storage and sales of seeds to avoid blindness as much as possible.

Generally, cooperatives only employ a small number of fixed staff, and the person in charge is elected by the cooperative members, and some temporary workers are added as appropriate during the harvest season. Staff salaries, management fees, electricity and other expenses are shared by members. In Germany, farmers are free to choose their sales methods. In fact, only a few farmers with strong economic strength buy their own means of transportation, go to the weekend farmers' market in the city or sell agricultural products in their gardens. Most farmers are willing to let cooperatives sell on their behalf, because it saves money and effort. Cooperatives never make a profit and never keep more expenses than necessary. More importantly, cooperatives are generally well run, so that farmers can benefit as much as possible.

The perfection of German agricultural cooperatives can not be separated from the strong support and guarantee of the government. The government recognizes the status of these farmers' organizations as spokesmen for farmers' interests, and actively negotiates and communicates with these organizations when formulating policies involving farmers, rural areas and agriculture, so as to reduce misunderstandings and contradictions between the government and farmers and promote agricultural development and rural prosperity.

The successful experience of German cooperatives shows that cooperatives have effectively changed the weak position of individual farmers, enabled farmers to share the profits from the processing, storage, transportation and sales of agricultural products, and effectively increased farmers' income.

People's Daily (07th edition, May 28th, 2007)