For more than a decade, Siping city in Jilin province has used the model of farmer cooperatives to drive the local rural economy.

The model combines the efforts of the government, research institutes and local farmers. "It is an organization of the people, by the people and for the people," said Hao Shuang, head of Lishu county's Shuangliang Cooperative, founded five years ago.

Sharing such tools as tractors, seeding machines and equipment for land treatment, the members of the cooperative together manage 485 hectares of farmland.