– Tai Shouku
Since 2015, the agricultural and husbandry team from Taiwan, in collaboration with the MSI Meigu team and the Meigu County Poverty Alleviation Bureau, has been conducting Meigu Agriculture Cooperative training. Contents of the programme include: production and quality control, staff management, cooperative spirit, case studies of successful world cooperatives, team building, and management of marketing.
The first cooperative consultation programme was for walnut planting and breeding black goats. Participants included the cooperatives’ directors and advisors along with the agricultural and husbandry teams which would go to the villages to provide on-site training at cooperatives that have started. The key to the successful development of the Meigu agriculture cooperatives was commitment and consensus among cooperative members towards the organisation. For this reason, we focused our training on establishing mutual understanding of fair and reasonable systems.
The World Bank’s financial assistance aided the establishment of the cooperatives. However, to continue its development, the cooperative relies on the objectives and vision of its members as well as the integration of the hardware and software development of rural communities.
We hope to see long-term co-workers in Meigu County together with short-term agricultural and husbandry teams establishing long-term partnerships, mutual trust, and a positive relationship. In this way, we can continue to assist cooperatives in marketing agricultural produce, brand-building, and improving quality. Together we can develop a staff management system, a foundation of industry within village communities, and encourage the professionalism of peasants.