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The booming milk industry of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has turned some million dairy farmers into salary earners.
Li Renyi, a dairy farmer in the Qahar Right Wing Front Banner, said, "My 25 cows can now bring me a steady monthly income."
Recently, Li and his community, about 90 people altogether, received from a local credit cooperative a check of 260,000 yuan (31,300 US dollars).
The money was paid by dairy production companies with whom theyhave signed milk purchase contracts.
As the country's demands for dairy products keep growing, many milk companies are choosing to cooperate with dairy farmers to secure sufficient supplies of quality milk.
Between January and August, the money paid by the Yili Group and the Mengniu Dairy group alone, reached 1.2 billion yuan (144.6million US dollars).
According to Ren Fu, head of the Milk Industry Office of BaotouCity, after years of development, cooperation between farmers and enterprises is well established.
With purchase guarantees, farmers can get loans from both banksand governments to purchase cows so long as the milk they supply meets the quality standards of enterprises.
"Such cooperation has greatly changed my life," said farmer Xi Zhongyi of Shebi'ai Village of Hohhot City.
With a steady income, Xi can now afford to buy rice and flour from the market.
What's more, stock fluctuation has become hugely important because the rise and fall of milk companies' stocks may indirectlyaffect their breeding.
A dairy production belt 2,000 kilometers long is forming in theregion and cooperative methods are spreading across the country.
(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2002)
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