Thematic Watch

Stable supply of fertiliser and other agricultural inputs bears directly on food security, making it the cooperatives' most public-facing core business. The coop system supplies about 70% of the nation's fertiliser.

Addressing “who will farm the land and how,” the system connects smallholders to modern agriculture through farmland trusteeship, integrated plant protection, and drying and storage. The target is to exceed 400 million mu-instances of service by the end of the 15th Five-Year period.

Rebuilding the county–township–village three-tier circulation network, handling the two-way flow of industrial goods into rural areas and farm produce into cities — the backbone of a modern rural commercial system.

Aggregating dispersed farm produce and connecting it with large markets and government procurement is key to raising farmer incomes and delivering consumption-based assistance.

Reducing farm-produce losses and stabilising the “vegetable basket” supply requires public circulation infrastructure such as cold chains and wholesale markets.

The coop system handles the recycling of renewable resources, linking the circular economy with the integration of urban-rural sanitation networks, supporting trade-in programmes and the green transition.

How the “separation of cooperative and enterprise, connected top to bottom” dual-line mechanism operates determines the vitality and direction of the cooperatives, involving oversight of federation-owned assets, modern corporate governance and federation governance.

The cooperatives participate in international cooperative affairs (elected a vice-chair organisation of the ICA Asia-Pacific region) and pursue economic and trade cooperation under the Belt and Road framework — offering an entry point for comparing China's and the world's cooperative economies.