Rural cooperative increases farm income

Increasing farmers incomes is high on the central government's list of priorities when it comes to improving the livelihood of people living in China's rural areas. Li Xiang takes a look at how a rural cooperative is helping strawberry growers in Sichuan make money and transform themselves to businessmen.

"This retailer in Beijing says he needs supply."

"How many does he want?"

"10,000 boxes."

"Deal. Tell him we'll send them three days later."

By growing and selling strawberries online, She Shiquan has dramatically expanded his business.

He now spends some 3,000 yuan every day in airfare to send strawberries to buyers in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

She Shiquan, Shuangliu County, Sichaun Province,said, "In the past, we did business simply by using our bare hands. Things got better after we had beepers and cell phones. In 2009, I bought a computer in a bid to explore business on the Internet. Since that, the annual sales volume has increased from ten-thousand kilograms to over 200-thousand kilograms."

There's no doubt that such an increase of sales means a big surge of income.

She Shiquan said, "The money I made has increased many times. Now people are calling me boss."

In Shuangliu county, there are over five-thousand farmers who have experiences similar to that of She Shiquan.

Thanks to a cooperative established by the local government, they received training to improve their expertise on farming and learned how to better promote their products.

Huang Xingui, Party Secretary of Yongxing Township, Shaungliu County, said, "The cooperative provides services from packaging, transportation to sales. That has helped farmers' income reached 180-thousand yuan per hectare."

This year, China plans to set up a total of 200-thousand rural cooperatives like the one in Shuangliu, aiming to help 50 million farmers improve the competitiveness of their agricultural products.

Meanwhile, the country also plans to set up farmers' training schemes in 29 provinces, in a bid to promote farmers' start-ups in rural areas.