Chinanews, Beijing, Jul. 10 – According to Zheng Wenkai, an official from China’s Ministry of Agriculture, nearly 35 million farmers had joined professional cooperatives by 2006, an increase of 13.8% compared over 2005.Zheng said that China’s professional cooperatives were established in the late 1980s, which had brought huge profits to Chinese farmers. According to statistics, farmers who joined in the professional cooperatives had gained higher annual income than those who had not.Currently planting, professional cooperatives mainly are devoted to crop cultivation, stockbreeding, fishery and tourism. Zheng said that professional cooperatives could be more competitive in the near future under household contract responsibility system with remuneration linked to output.