Agricultural cooperatives rejuvenate staff and digitize operations

Gia Lai Thanks to the rejuvenation of its staff, Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative has made many breakthroughs in its operations, digitalizing production and consuming agricultural products for farmers.

Promote organic production

After 5 years of operation, Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative (Gia Lai province) has increasingly affirmed its role as a "midwife" for local farmers in guiding organic production and consuming agricultural products for local farmers.

Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative instructs members on how to use a drip irrigation system on dwarf coconut trees. Photo: V.D.T.

Hoai An district (formerly Binh Dinh province), now the communes of Hoai An, An Tuong, Van Duc, Kim Son and An Hao ( Gia Lai ) in the midland region, is the land known as the "capital" of fruit trees in the East of Gia Lai province with 250 hectares of green-skin pomelos, 395 hectares of coconuts, 72 hectares of avocados and hundreds of hectares of oranges and tangerines.

Before the Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative was established, during the harvest season, the consumption of agricultural products of farmers was completely dependent on traders, and prices were unstable. When the Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative came into operation, farmers here no longer had to worry about the consumption of agricultural products, and the level of clean agricultural cultivation was also improved.

According to Mr. Thai Thanh Viet, a member of Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative, since its inception, the Cooperative has promoted and encouraged farmers to convert traditional production methods to organic production to produce clean agricultural products. Up to now, Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative has attracted about 170 member households to produce organic vegetables, tubers and fruits. During the production process, the Cooperative advances to farmers agricultural materials such as seeds, fertilizers and organic pesticides at cost price, and only collects the products when the Cooperative harvests them without interest. All products are purchased, processed and consumed by the Cooperative.

“As of November 2025, the Cooperative has purchased nearly 200 tons of vegetables and tubers of all kinds and nearly 500 tons of fruits of all kinds from farmers. The Cooperative purchased cold dryers and washing machines to process agricultural products before bringing them to market. The Cooperative's agricultural product consumption markets are supermarket systems, clean agricultural product stores, schools in the area and the Hoai Nhon Mental Health Care Center. In particular, Hoai An green-skinned grapefruit is available at large supermarket systems such as Co.opmart, clean food store chains in the West of Gia Lai province, the West of Quang Ngai, Da Nang and the Postmart Post Office system,” said Mr. Thai Thanh Viet.

A member of the Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative operates a drip irrigation system for dwarf coconut trees. Photo: V.D.T.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa, a grapefruit grower in Hoai An commune (Gia Lai), shared: “Previously, during the main grapefruit harvest season, my family encountered many difficulties in consumption, and prices were unstable. Since joining the chain with the cooperative, I feel more secure because the output is stable, and I have been instructed in safe farming techniques, helping to improve product quality and increase income.”

Rejuvenate the team, digitize operations

The Board of Directors of Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative currently has 7 members, of which 4 have university degrees in the fields of cultivation, animal husbandry, and business administration; the remaining 3 have 12/12 degrees and are very skilled in their profession, responsible for managing teams installing drip irrigation systems for vegetable and fruit farms and designing and providing landscape trees for communes in the area. These are 2 new services of Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative. The Cooperative also attracts many young people who have graduated from university but do not work in other provinces but return to their hometown to contribute to their homeland, develop OCOP products, design product models, etc.

In addition, the Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative also focuses on digitalizing production. To guide farming techniques for 170 member households, the Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative has set up many Zalo groups for each type of crop. Through Zalo groups, the Cooperative guides when to apply fertilizer and how to care for the crops; if the crops are sick, farmers take photos and send them to the Zalo group, the Cooperative's technical staff will "diagnose" the crops and instruct them on the use of pesticides to prevent and control the disease.

“The fertilizers and pesticides that the cooperative runs on the program are mostly organic fertilizers such as vermicompost and plant protection drugs are organic biological preparations to ensure that the products are clean agricultural products,” Mr. Thai Thanh Viet shared.

Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative has just transferred a 2,000m2 greenhouse system to grow melons, and has just finished harvesting the first crop. Photo: V.D.T.

Recently, Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative also received a transfer from a local farmer of a greenhouse system to grow melons with an area of ​​2,000 m2. In the last melon crop, the Cooperative planted 7,500 melons and finished harvesting. Preparing to produce the melon crop for the upcoming Lunar New Year, the Cooperative's greenhouse system was completely destroyed by storm No. 13. The Cooperative is hiring workers from Da Lat to urgently rebuild the greenhouse system so that the Cooperative can reproduce the Tet melon crop.

“The entire vegetable, melon and fruit tree areas of the cooperative members are installed with a drip irrigation fertilization system. For the past 3 months, the cooperative has been applying Japanese software, from planting to harvesting, each product has its own QR code. When scanning the QR code, consumers will know which household produced the product, and the production process is fully displayed,” said Mr. Thai Thanh Viet, a member of the Hoai An Youth Agricultural Cooperative.

Source: https://nongnghiepmoitruong.vn/hop-tac-xa-nong-nghiep-tre-hoa-doi-ngu-so-hoa-hoat-dong-d784741.html