Internet+Agriculture： Let Agricultural Products ＂Out of the Village＂ and Information ＂Into the Village＂

On June 27th, the executive meeting of the State Council heard a report on further promoting "Internet+Agriculture" to promote the integration and development of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries. The meeting pointed out that, in accordance with the deployment of the CPC Central Committee in the State Council, it is of great significance to implement the rural revitalization strategy in depth, give greater play to the role of the market, develop various professional social services relying on the "internet plus", promote more accurate and efficient agricultural production management, and better connect hundreds of millions of small farmers with the rapidly changing big market, so as to promote agricultural quality and efficiency, and broaden new employment and income-increasing channels for farmers.

What are the chemical reactions produced by the cross-border integration of "Internet+Agriculture"? How to use the Internet to make agricultural products better "out of the village" and information better "into the village"? On July 2nd, the State Council Information Office held a routine briefing on the State Council policy, which was interpreted by Qu Dongyu, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Keke, Director of Market and Economic Information Department, and Zong Jinyao, Director of Agricultural Products Processing Bureau.

Agricultural products e-commerce is moving towards the 300 billion yuan mark.

In July 2015, the Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Actively Promoting the Action of internet plus was released, which clearly put forward 11 key actions of internet plus, such as entrepreneurial innovation, collaborative manufacturing and modern agriculture. How is the action of "Modern Agriculture in internet plus" progressing at present?

Qu Dongyu introduced that "Internet+Agriculture" itself is an important part of the "internet plus" action guidance, which is to use the cross-border integration of new generation information technologies such as mobile Internet, big data, cloud computing and Internet of Things with agriculture, and innovate modern agricultural new products, new models and new formats based on the Internet platform through resource integration, information sharing and factor interconnection.

"We constantly optimize the development environment of’ internet plus’, promote the deepening application of Internet technology in agricultural production, and promote the rapid development of rural e-commerce." Qu Dongyu introduced that by the end of 2017, the comprehensive demonstration of e-commerce in rural areas had supported 756 counties. In 2017, the online retail sales in rural areas reached 1.25 trillion yuan, and the e-commerce of agricultural products was moving towards 300 billion yuan, driving the number of employed people to exceed 28 million.

With the deepening of the sharing and opening up of information resources in rural areas, the value of the Internet and big data in rural areas began to appear.

"Agricultural and rural big data is massive. We should provide authoritative government information services and useful business information services through data collection, collation, development and utilization." Qu Dongyu revealed that at present, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs is establishing four platforms nationwide, namely, traceability of agricultural product quality and safety, basic data of agricultural and veterinary drugs, market information of key agricultural products and direct reporting of information of new agricultural business entities, so as to gradually realize data management services and guide production and marketing.

In addition, in the past three years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has also trained farmers to use mobile phones, making mobile phones not only a means of subsistence for farmers, but also an important means of production and a "new agricultural tool" for farmers.

Solving the problem of unsalable agricultural products by internet

The problem of unsalable agricultural products has been puzzling the development of agriculture and the increase of farmers’ income for a long time. How to use the Internet to solve this problem?

"Now, traditional e-commerce has transported a large number of industrial products and consumer goods to the countryside through the Internet, which has played a very important role in invigorating the material supply and convenience of life in rural areas. However, for rural revitalization, the most important thing is to help farmers sell high-quality qualified and distinctive agricultural products to cities, which is the so-called agricultural products going up. " Qu Dongyu said.

Qu Dongyu pointed out that the Internet provides a rare historical opportunity and means for small farmers to connect with the big market. We should cooperate with the "out-of-village" project of agricultural products to help the agricultural products in poverty-stricken areas and other distinctive areas and hundreds of millions of small farmers connect with the big market, not only with the big market in China, but also with the big international market.

In order to promote the docking of agricultural products production and marketing in poverty-stricken areas, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs recently held the docking operation of agricultural products production and marketing in poverty-stricken areas in 2018. The first docking activity was signed on site with a total purchase amount of 12.7 billion yuan. "’Internet+Agriculture’ is first of all the digitalization of agriculture. It is necessary to realize the digitalization of the whole agricultural industry chain in many aspects such as pre-production, mid-production, post-production and production environment." Qu Dongyu said that at the same time, efforts should be made to build agricultural capacity and innovation capacity, promote the standardization of agricultural production, and promote agricultural management innovation and marketing innovation.

In the process of development, agricultural products "leaving the village" and information "entering the village" go hand in hand.

Keke introduced that in order to narrow the digital gap between urban and rural areas, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, on the basis of summing up the experience of the 12316 information service hotline for agriculture, rural areas and farmers, implemented the project of information entering villages and households. So far, it has been promoted in 18 provinces, which has become a breakthrough in agricultural and rural information services. "The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will speed up the construction of the information society for benefiting farmers and ensure that more than 80% of the administrative villages in the country will be covered by 2020."

Promote the deep integration of agriculture and other industries.

Enjoy chrysanthemums, taste delicious food and listen to music … Recently, in Shuibang Village, Egong Town, dingnan county City, Jiangxi Province, a musical event with the theme of "Poetic Chrysanthemum Night, Romantic Music Festival" was staged in Baimu Chrysanthemum Base.

"Relying on the development concept of’ Internet+Agriculture’, the chrysanthemums we grow are both medicinal materials and tourism products." Peng Jinhuang, head of the base, said that the products of medicinal chrysanthemum and Chinese herbal medicines produced in the base are mainly sold in the form of "internet plus e-commerce", which can drive 20 poor households to increase their income and become rich every year.

Through the interconnection of "internet plus", agricultural planting, processing industry and rural leisure tourism are connected into a unity that echoes and promotes each other, creating an upgraded version of agricultural and rural economy.

In recent years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has further promoted the integration development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas. Since 2015, it has organized and implemented the subsidy policy for the integration development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. So far, it has arranged a total of 12.1 billion yuan of funds to support the integration development projects, and the rural integration development has shown a new pattern of multi-mode promotion, multi-agent participation, multi-interest connection, multi-factor exertion and multi-format creation.

Zong Jinyao introduced that in 2017, the output value of China’s agricultural product processing industry reached 22 trillion yuan, and the operating income of leisure agriculture and rural tourism reached 740 billion yuan; New formats and models such as creative agriculture, sharing agriculture, crowdfunding agriculture and e-commerce are emerging one after another, constantly expanding the multi-function of agriculture and allowing farmers to share value-added benefits.

"In the future, we will continue to implement the promotion of the integration and development of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries, promote the implementation of support policies such as finance, finance, taxation, scientific and technological talents, land use and electricity consumption, support a number of counties, towns and villages, develop pilot areas and demonstration parks for rural integration and development, and cultivate enterprises with integrated development." Zong Jinyao said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will guide enterprises and farmers to share dividends through contract farming, especially in the form of joint-stock cooperative system and joint-stock system, so that farmers can share value-added benefits reasonably and form a community of interests and destiny.(Reporter Villi)