Activities in Vietnam

Aiming to enhance the functions of agricultural cooperatives, the Government of Vietnam promoted the transformation of old-style cooperatives and establishment of new ones in accordance with 1996 Cooperative Law. As a result, over 2,000 new cooperatives had been established and nearly 7,000 old cooperatives had been restructured as of 2004. In order to support these efforts by the Government of Vietnam, JICA provided training courses for leaders of agricultural cooperatives from 1999 to 2004 and held conferences to promote the establishment of cooperatives in the South over a three-year period from 2001 to 2003.

However, while improvement has been made to the agricultural cooperatives themselves, there has been little improvement in the livelihoods of the farmers who constitute their members. Despite the demand for marketing of farm products, agro-processing and joint purchasing of production materials from the cooperatives, such approaches to business are making little progress due to the lack of experience of the cooperative officers. Part of the reason is that their focus remains on agricultural activity, which was the main activity of the old-style cooperative.

Under such circumstances, JICA engages in a technical cooperation project by setting Hoa Binh and Thai Binh Province as models. After establishing pilot cooperatives in these provinces, JICA has run the survey on their members’ needs. Then, the interim plan has been formulated to improve organization as well as to further enhance and expand business. Based on the plan, specific programs have been devised and implemented. In addition, training has been provided for the cooperative officers and the administrative officials from regional provinces in policymaking and progress management. Furthermore, in order to identify common problems to all cooperatives and smoothly disseminate the experiences of the model agricultural cooperatives, additional satellites cooperatives have been established, enabling the participation in the activities of the aforementioned pilot cooperatives.

Through this Project, the excellent model of agricultural cooperatives has been created. It is expected to be disseminated throughout the country as a model for farmers’ organizations that will help improve the livelihoods of their members.