A forum held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on April 15 urged formore ambition and innovation in the city’s bid to create new-stylecooperatives in the face of current integration and development.

Agricultural cooperatives now play a role more important than everamid the rapid pace of development, said Vice Chairman of the SteeringCommittee for the Southwestern Region Nguyen Phong Quang.

He highlighted the need to adapt existing cooperatives to current conditions.

Once built and operated successfully, new-style cooperatives,especially those for the Mekong Delta’s key staples of rice, aquaticproducts and fruits, will boost profitability and increase incomes forfarmers, he added.

The Vietnam Cooperative Alliancesaid it plans to restructure existing agricultural cooperatives andpilot five new-style facilities in the region from now to 2016. Between2017 and 2020, regional localities need to apply the model to 30cooperatives.

The Mekong Delta, encompassing 12provinces and one centrally-run city, has a farmland area of around 3.21million hectares. It produces 70 percent of fruit, 52 percent ofaquatic products, and more than 90 percent of exported rice for Vietnamevery year.

By the end of 2014, the region housed 1,928 agricultural cooperatives with 531,299 households registered as members.

Though the cooperative number is fewer than in other regions, MekongDelta cooperatives work more efficiently, according to Fatherland FrontPresident Nguyen Thien Nhan.

However, he pointedout hindrances to improved performance, such as the poor capacity ofcooperative leaders and the shortage of State assistance.

At the forum, representatives from provincial authorities andcooperatives also underlined existing advantages and disadvantages ofcooperative activities and proposed policies facilitating thedevelopment of agricultural cooperatives in the future.-VNA