The local administration in Zuun Salaa Village in Jarud Banner, Tongliao City of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has built a new system that aims to bring more profits for the whole village, while promoting the integration of urban and rural development.
The village lived on farming and animal husbandry, and the traditional methods of animal husbandry have limited the economic and social development of the village.
In 2013, in order to address the backwardness of the village, Wu Yunbo, secretary of the village Communist Party branch, pushed the villagers to develop a collective economy.
He set up a professional cooperative of cattle farming, and persuaded all the villagers to join in and become a shareholder, with the shares being land, cattle or capital.
"Before the establishment of the cooperative, we really couldn't make much money by raising cattle ourselves. Now, we practice centralized farming, which is more modern and the cattle is raised better. The annual income has increased by about 50,000 to 60,000 yuan," said Hexi Getu, a local villager.
"Our village was established more than 70 years ago. The grassland area has not changed over the years, but the population is increasing. The traditional business model is definitely not feasible, so we decided to adopt a centralized business model to make people's income go higher and higher," Wu said.
In recent years, the cooperative has also built a steak-cutting workshop and a beef jerky processing factory, which have extended the industrial chain. As of now, the total assets of the cooperative have reached 70 million yuan (9.65 million U.S. dollars), and accumulated dividends have touched 12 million yuan (1.65 million U.S. dollars).
"At first, we only raised cattle, and gradually discovered that we were losing money. But the people had already joined the cooperative. If we closed down, then the losses would be bigger. So, we came to the decision to engage in deep processing," Wu said.
The cooperative has currently opened 13 direct-sale beef stores and one hotpot restaurant across the country, forming a full industrial chain from breeding to catering, and successfully created a new livestock management system. People in Jarud Banner and Tongliao City have gradually joined the industrial chain and cooperative.
"I used to be an ordinary office worker, and it was difficult to support a family of three with the money I earned in a year. After only six months of joining, I earned the same amount of money that I would have earned in two years of work before. Within four years, we bought a house in Jarud Banner," said Wu Yunwang, a local resident.
The four-day Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that concluded on July 18 in Beijing pointed out that it is necessary to consolidate and improve the basic rural management system, as also to strengthen, benefit and enrich farmers. The development of the cattle breeding cooperative in Zuun Salaa Village is undoubtedly one of the models. This profitable industry not only gives villagers greater property rights and interests, but also promotes coordinated development of urban and rural industrial and supply chains, thereby narrowing the urban-rural gap.
Village in north China's Inner Mongolia forms cooperative to boost herders' incomes
