|
Gender of Dai village cooperative operator |
Land size (mu亩) |
Main Products |
Farming Methods |
Marketing Channels |
Challenges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
male |
3000 |
Rice |
Certified organic food, Weeding by hands, Biological insect resisting methods (e.g.，spider for rice planthopper） |
Wechat/ phone order and delivery; retailing stores |
Marketing channels & lack of labour due to aging farmers |
About Dai Cooperative
- Dai village used to be a poor village where chemical agriculture was dominating the farming landscape and environment pollution was severe.
- The converting to organic farming started from 2001 when a scientific researcher called Yafu Zhao and his research team decided to promote organic farming in Dai village. They brought the original techniques and ideas of organic agriculture to the village.
- The first few years were to educate farmers about organic farming, and to “let them believe in the productivity and profits of organic farming”. In 2006, the farmers’ cooperative was founded by 812 households in the village. By pooling land together, each household became a shareholder of the cooperative.
Arrangements of the cooperative
- Zhao provides rice seeds to the cooperative, and the governments provide funding for purchasing processing machines. Zhao also offers technical trainings to farmers.
- Before 2014, the cooperative was economically sustained by public procurement of their rice. The challenge came when public procurement was prohibited by the government’s anti-corruption campaign. So the cooperative has been struggling to find new market sales.
- 80% of the cooperative income will be paid back to farmer shareholders, while the other 20% will be retained as collective savings.
Other interesting things about the village?
- At the beginning of promoting organic agriculture in the village, the biggest challenge was that farmers were so heavily relied on chemicals that they didn’t buy in the concept of chemical-free agriculture.
- Marketing is the new challenge as farmers’ cooperatives are geographically located far away from the urban markets. The rising online markets might be a new chance for farmers’ cooperatives in the future.