Pilot cooperatives programme to continue

Testing the pump at Dong Tam AC of Hoa Binh Province

The project document was inked on October 25 in Hanoi by representatives of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Department of Cooperatives and Rural Development under Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The first phase of the project kicked off in March 2006 aiming to assist Vietnam’s government to develop new cooperative models in accordance with the 1996 Cooperative Law.

The government is promoting the transformation of traditional style cooperatives which focus mainly on agriculture production. It wants to establish new cooperatives whose activities includes marketing, product processing, joint purchasing of production materials and credit.

Despite the high demand from cooperative members, however, little progress has been made because cooperative officers lack experience.

According to Tsuno Motonori, chief representative of JICA Vietnam, the single function cooperative model was once popular in Japan. As of 1961, however, the Japanese government encouraged small-scale agricultural cooperatives to merge and then form multi-functional cooperatives.

“The multi-function agricultural cooperatives take responsibility for all service areas such as provision of farming tools, credit, helping farmer to process and consume products and covering insurance for farmers’ activities. I think these types of experiences are a good fit with the current development of Vietnam agriculture,” said Motonori.

The first phase of the project which ended in September last year was a real success in enhancing functions of agricultural cooperatives in Thai Binh and Hoa Binh provinces, according to vice minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ho Xuan Hung.

“The project experiences have been documented as guidebook to be applied on national scale; this includes a guideline for formulating mid-term planning in agricultural cooperatives, and a guideline for organising regular meeting of cooperative members. With a desire to bring into full play the achievements of phase 1 of the project and expand the project nationwide, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has proposed the carrying out the second phase and JICA has agreed to continue its support,” Hung said.

By popularising the lessons and achievements of the first phase (2006–2010) to other regions and cooperatives, the second phase will focus on building the support system for enhancing functions of cooperatives and building human resource training systems at central and local levels.

The project will run from 2011 to 2014 in northern, central and southern provinces including Hoa Binh, Thai Binh, Hai Duong, An Giang and Binh Dinh.