1. Policy background and main content The 18th CPC National Congress decided the direction of developing specialized cooperation and shareholding cooperation. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee encouraged the development of rural collective economy, and stressed the policy of one "support" and three "permissions." The No. l Central Document in 2014 stated that farmers' cooperatives in varied forms, such as specialized cooperation and shareholding cooperation, should be encouraged, and standard operation should be guided. Based on the CPC Central Committee's requirements, regional governments continued to consider developing farmers' cooperatives as an important task of constructing new-type agricultural business system and promoting modern agriculture. They took effective measures to enhance guidance and services, so as to provide good conditions for farmers' cooperatives to develop standardly and healthily.
(1) Efforts were taken to guide standardization, in order to improve the operation of farmers' cooperatives. Standardized construction is an important task of developing farmers' cooperatives. In a 2014 joint meeting, the MoA, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and other six departments enacted a document on guiding and promoting the standardized development of farmers' cooperatives, which stated the general thinking, goals, tasks and policies on the standardized construction of cooperatives. The State Administration for Industry and Commerce released a document on disclosing annual reports of farmers' cooperatives, which required the registration information of farmers, cooperatives should be released on the business credit information public notice system, and spot checks of the public information notice should be conducted nationwide, so as to improve standard operation of the cooperatives. The Ministry of Water Resources, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the MoA, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce released a document on supporting the innovative development of farmers' cooperatives related to water resources. Some 18 provinces enacted regional laws and regulations on the cooperatives, and 13 provinces released guiding documents on standardized construction, which provided a legal system for developing farmers, cooperatives. Some local governments standardized the financial management of the cooperatives, set cooperative open day and took other measures to promote the standardization of farmers’ cooperatives.
(2) Demonstration cooperatives were created to set examples for constructing farmers，cooperatives. Selecting demonstration cooperatives was an important duty of the national joint meeting of developing farmers’ cooperatives. The MoA released a notification on demonstration farmers' cooperative application, which stated selection criteria and application procedure. After recommendation, review, approval and public notification, the joint meeting released a list of 4013 authorized national demonstration farmers' cooperatives on Nov.22, 2014. The authorized demonstration cooperatives were large and strong, operated in democratic and standard ways, and contributed greatly to the increase of farmers' income. They set good examples for the healthy development of farmers' cooperatives.
(3) Efforts were taken to regulate credit cooperation between cooperatives to enhance their services. Conducting credit cooperation was a requirement of the 18th CPC National Congress, and an important task of the comprehensive rural reform. In March 2014, the MoA and the China Banking Regulatory Commission released a notification of guiding farmers, cooperatives to carry out credit cooperation, which stressed that local governments should enhance their supervision on credit cooperation. In October, another notification was released to set the policy limit of rural cooperative finance. The China Banking Regulatory Commission organized a leading group for rural cooperative finance, and worked with other ministries to approve Shandong Province's new-type rural cooperative finance pilot program, and selected three counties as pilot areas, including Jinzhai, Yutian and Yuanling. The MoA conducted investigations of regional credit cooperation situations, and created an investigation report.
(4) Efforts were taken to improve support policies for the cooperatives. Policies on funding, tax preference and credit were enhanced to provide policy guarantee for developing cooperatives. The Ministry of Finance released a notification of conducting an innovative pilot program on funding farmers' cooperatives, which required innovations of funding methods and cooperatives' development forms. In 2014, the central government allocated 2 billion yuan for developing farmers' specialized cooperatives, with a 7.5 percent increase from the year before, among which 600 million yuan was for the innovative pilot program, with a 20 percent increase from last year. The program coverage was expanded to 12 provinces and municipalities. The MoA carried out a secured loan funding pilot program for farmers' cooperatives, which provided 303 million yuan of deposit for 124 cooperative. The deposit-to-loan ratio was 1:33.3, which enhanced financial support for the cooperatives. The Banking Regulatory Commission released a document on providing rural financial services, with an emphasis on guiding financial institutions to enhance support for new-type agricultural business entities; the commission worked with the MoA to release a document on guiding financial support for large-scale agricultural production and intensive management. By the end of September 2014, financial institutions lent a total of 662.9 billion yuan to rural organizations including farmers' cooperatives.
(5) Efforts were taken to support agriculture-related projects to improve developing conditions of farmers' cooperatives. The project scale was expanded in aspects of farmland water conservancy construction, comprehensive agricultural development, agricultural technology promotion, rural land arrangement, and agricultural product processing. Supports were provided for afforestation and crop farming loans. Management pilots were constructed for management of farmland water conservancy facilities and agricultural comprehensive development assets. In 2014, some 600 million yuan was allocated for subsidizing the preliminary processing of agricultural products, which supported more than 1,500 cooperatives and over 10,000 farm households to build 18 000 preliminary processing facilities.
(6) Personnel training was enhanced to provide intellectual support for developing farmers' cooperatives. The MoA organized leadership-training programs in rural areas and encouraged local agriculture departments and social institutions to provide training programs. According to statistics, agricultural departments trained 462,000 people. The programs provided training in law and policy, which improved the standardization of the cooperatives.
(7) The production and sale of agricultural products were better integrated. The CPC Central Committee attached great importance to the "Farm to Community" program. In 2014, financial departments at all levels allocated 161 million yuan to support the direct selling of agricultural products. By the end of 2014, 21,300 farmers' cooperatives joint the "Farm to Community" program, and 27,900 direct-sale stores were built, covering 32,100 communities and 106 million consumers, which generated 34.09 billion yuan in sales volume.
2. Policy implementation and impact evaluation Farmers' cooperatives developed sustainably in 2014. By the end of the year, 1.29 million cooperatives registered at administrations of industry and commerce, up 31.2 percent year-on-year; 2.73 trillion yuan was lent out, with an increase of 44.2 percent; there were 92.27 million cooperative members, accounting for 35.5 percent of all farmers, up 7 percent from previous year. Currently, the farmers' cooperatives have been shifting their development focus from quantity to quality, from production to integration production and sale, and from one factor to the collaboration of multiple factors, including labor, technique, capital and land. They play an important role in advancing agricultural modernization, increasing farmers' income and constructing new socialist countryside.
(1) The collaboration got closer. The cooperatives were managed democratically, with a "three-board system" established, including a board of representatives, a board of directors and a board of supervisors. The cooperatives' regulations, organization and institution were improved, financial management and accounting audit were enhanced, and profits were better distributed, which formed a better collaboration system. By the end of 2014, the number of cooperatives, which based their profit distribution on trading income, up 25.3 percent from 2013. Some 60 percent of all cooperatives carried out financial disclosure, and 65 percent set up their production records.
(2) Services were cooperatives provided production, production including the supply of agricultural machinery operation, pest and disease control, technology and information services, processing and storage, sales, and other things that are too difficult or too expensive to be done by a single farm household. By the end of 2014, the services provided by cooperatives were worth over 1 trillion yuan in total; over 50 percent of cooperatives provided services for integrating production and sales; some 258.1 billion yuan was spent on production inputs; about 10 percent of cooperatives provided product-processing services.
(3) Featured businesses were developed. Based on local resource conditions, farmers' cooperatives organized standard, specialized and large-scale production, and developed local specialties, which promoted industry cluster and industry agglomeration. Featured businesses turned local production advantages into economic strength. Some 90 percent of the cooperatives provided various technology services for farm households. More than 70 000 cooperatives owned registered trademarks; many had certifications of green products and organic products; some of them applied for geographical indications. These were important subjects to the implementation of agricultural brand strategy.
(4) The income of cooperative members continued to increase. As the cooperatives developed, their strength and competitiveness grew, which realized the good quality and low price of products, and increased farmers’ income; agricultural product processing was developed, and supply chains were extended to add value to products, which generated more profits for farmers; more farmers were employed by the cooperatives, and their salary income grew; collective assets were liquidized, and farmers' property income was increased. In 2014, farmers! cooperatives generated about 500 billion yuan in revenue, with 90.7 billion yuan in distributable profit. According to statistics, cooperative members can earn 20 percent more than independent farm households that produced the same product, and some of them can even make 30 to 50 percent more.
