'Cooperative star' Phuoc Hung

Constantly innovating and making breakthroughs in its operations, in 2024 Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative was among the top 100 outstanding cooperatives nationwide and won the 'Cooperative Star' award.

Many breakthroughs

Coming to the headquarters of Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative (Tuy Phuoc Bac commune, Gia Lai) any day, we see the cooperative staff busy with a "mountain of work", including services: Internal irrigation; supply of plant varieties and agricultural materials; rice drying; rural electricity; internal credit; trading in gasoline and oil; straw rolling; rice consumption.

When mentioning Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative, people in the East of Gia Lai province immediately think of the first unit of the former Binh Dinh province that boldly carried out land consolidation to build large fields for rice seed production. In 2016, assigned by the local government to build a "large field" model with an area of ​​100 hectares mainly in Luong Loc and Tan Hoi villages, the Cooperative made great efforts to mobilize farmers to consolidate land to implement.

High working intensity of employees of Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative. Photo: V.D.T.

“It was called a plot exchange plantation, but in fact, what we did was to destroy the field banks and expand the area banks in the two villages of Luong Loc and Tan Hoi, each village 50 hectares. After the farmers agreed, we cast concrete pillars and planted boundaries for each field according to the old field banks, so the field area of ​​each household participating in the large field was still separately defined. The field banks were destroyed, the fields became large fields, the plows and harvesters could operate freely, no longer having to deal with the banks and corners like before, and the organization of production became more convenient,” Mr. Tran Tang Long, Director of Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative, recalled.

Thanks to the expanded border, since the 2020-2021 winter-spring crop, Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative has used drones to spray pesticides on the area linked to rice seed production. The large field model is very suitable for using drones thanks to inter-regional and inter-plot fields, reducing the number of times pesticides are sprayed.

Since the 2013-2014 winter-spring crop, Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative has pioneered the service of rolling straw by mechanical means, contributing to increasing the value of by-products from rice production, meeting the raw materials for mushroom cultivation, crops, perennial plants, the need for storing feed for livestock and protecting the environment. In addition, the Cooperative organizes the service of buying and selling straw to dairy farms in Binh Dinh and Gia Lai provinces (old), bringing in revenue of 500-600 million VND/year.

“Currently, Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative maintains a partnership with ThaiBinh Seed to produce rice seeds with an average area of ​​250 hectares/year, purchasing output of nearly 1,000 tons/year; annual revenue of over 9 billion VND, added value for member farmers of about 1.5 billion VND/year,” said Mr. Tran Tang Long.

Large rice seed production field of Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative. Photo: V.D.T.

Brand "Phuoc Hung Countryside Rice"

In 2023, Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative invested 5 billion VND to build a high-tech rice drying factory with a capacity of 30 tons/shift, purchasing fresh rice from farmers to reduce pressure on location and labor for drying rice; increase the capacity to store rice seeds and commercial rice. After drying, rice seeds have stable quality and a high germination rate. In addition, shortening the drying time, not depending on the weather, reduces post-harvest loss and reduces 1/4 of labor costs compared to manual sun drying.

Recently, to increase rice drying capacity, Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative invested more than 5 billion VND to build an additional drying factory with a capacity of 30 tons/shift, increasing the total drying capacity to 60 tons/shift to serve rice seed production and rice processing activities.

Mr. Long added that in addition, the Cooperative also rented 4 hectares of public land to build a high-quality rice material area, and invested 3 billion VND to build a new technology rice processing factory. Up to now, the Cooperative has built the brand "Phuoc Hung Countryside Rice" according to the OCOP value chain, gradually bringing clean, organic agricultural products to the market.

In parallel, the Cooperative has also built a concentrated raw material production area applying high technology; built a website to sell and introduce products, and trace their origin. The Cooperative registered the collective trademark "Phuoc Hung Countryside Rice" and the product was recognized as a 3-star OCOP.

The product “Phuoc Hung Countryside Rice” was recognized as a 3-star OCOP product. Photo: V.D.T.

In addition, the Cooperative also builds production areas to test new rice varieties, pilot and demonstrate the application of advanced scientific and technical models in agriculture. Gradually produce organic and clean agricultural products to increase their value in the market.

According to Mr. Le Anh Duy, Vice Chairman of Tuy Phuoc Bac Commune People's Committee, to improve the quality of "Phuoc Hung Countryside Rice" products, Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative also invested in installing additional product packaging lines, polishing machines; designing and printing new packaging and designs, helping the products to be competitive in the market.

“Phuoc Hung Agricultural Cooperative is a united, dynamic, creative collective; dares to think and act, organizes production and consumption of products well, creates jobs, increases income for members, and contributes to completing the target of one product per commune in building new rural areas”, Mr. Nguyen Hung Tan, Chairman of Tuy Phuoc Bac Commune People's Committee assessed.

Source: https://nongnghiepmoitruong.vn/ngoi-sao-hop-tac-xa-phuoc-hung-d784992.html