Comments on Liu Shinan's column "Price hikes should bring benefit to our farmers" (China Daily, December 13, 2006)

Lacking proper access to market information, farmers can hardly fetch a good price for their products. Without scientific guidelines and accurate market analysis, they are always in a passive position.

Some related associations to support them are essential.

Steven

On China Daily website

In Liu Shinan's column he does not complain about the rise in food prices, but he is critical of the fact that it is the middlemen who make the profit, not the farmers who produce the food.

He goes on to say that if the farmers could organize some kind of farmers' associations, they may have a stronger say in the pricing of their products. He concluded by saying that the government is the best helper in this regard.

Mr Liu obviously does not know about the good work the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, ICCIC-Gung Ho, is doing in this respect in many parts of China.

I would like to draw his attention particularly to the Gung Ho farmers' cooperative in Jilin Province. Here the local farmers have organized a cooperative which deals with all the purchasing and marketing and cuts out the middleman.

Pat Adler

Via e-mail

(China Daily 01/25/2007 page11)