Creative agriculture leads a new direction for agricultural development

The modern agricultural development concept gives rise to new types of agricultural business models, and creative agriculture is one of them. Creative agriculture mainly has three characteristics: first, technological innovation, using internet technology to promote the deep integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries and upgrade and transform traditional agriculture. Second, innovation in business concepts, placing greater emphasis on experiential consumption, increasing consumer participation, and meeting diverse needs through exchange and interaction. Third, cultural support, creating higher added value in agriculture by building beautiful villages and protecting cultural heritage. Creative agriculture is emerging in some places, and its role in promoting agricultural quality improvement, efficiency enhancement and upgrading is gradually becoming apparent.

Establish an “Internet Plus” mindset. The internet is profoundly changing the way agriculture develops. In recent years, rural e-commerce has shown explosive growth, “Taobao villages” have sprung up everywhere, and the ways farmers get rich have changed significantly. In 2014, the e-commerce transaction volume of agricultural products in Zhejiang Province was approximately 20 billion yuan. Suichang County, a small mountainous county with a population of only 230,000, reached 410 million yuan in agricultural product e-commerce transactions. Internet agriculture, as the main form of expression of creative agriculture, has driven changes in business models and created enormous commercial value. The 2015 “Government Work Report” proposed formulating an “Internet Plus” action plan. In agricultural modernization, we should seize the opportunity, promote the development of creative agriculture, give full play to the role of the Internet of Things and e-commerce in reducing circulation costs, promote the penetration and integration of the internet with the entire agricultural industry chain, and form new competitive advantages for agriculture.

Focus on participatory experience. As a form of expression of creative agriculture, “community-supported agriculture” has attracted widespread attention. Taking the Little Donkey Citizen Farm in Haidian District, Beijing, as an example, it adopts natural farming techniques, values the inheritance of traditional farming culture and local knowledge, advocates a healthy and natural lifestyle, and provides citizens with vegetable delivery and vegetable plot rental services. It has initially formed a comprehensive agricultural development platform and organic agriculture brand that includes organic agricultural product production and sales, ecological agriculture demonstration, visiting experience, education and training, environmental protection, theoretical research and policy advocacy. The core of its business philosophy is: adhering to a consumer-centered approach, tapping rural community resources, allowing consumers to relax, consume and learn through participatory experience, achieving precise alignment between consumer demand and production supply, and promoting harmonious urban-rural development. “Community-supported agriculture” is an effective way to develop creative agriculture. We should actively guide industrial and commercial capital to develop modern planting and breeding industries suitable for enterprise-based operation, mobilize the enthusiasm of urban consumers to support the building of a new countryside, promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and cultivate new growth points in the agricultural and rural economy.

⟦NL> With local culture as support. Agriculture is the cradle of local culture, and the creativity of creative agriculture is largely reflected in cultural characteristics. Distinctive village styles, traditional local customs and pastoral scenery, and rich farming civilization are all precious assets for promoting the building of beautiful villages and promoting the development of rural communities. For example, Shandong Province organized and implemented the “Rural Memory Project” to protect rural cultural heritage, including traditional buildings not yet listed as cultural relic protection units, representative production tools and production relics and other physical objects, as well as intangible cultural heritage such as local production customs and festival customs. On the basis of protection, a batch of ancient dwellings, ancient villages and ancient streets and alleys with rich local characteristics and traditional cultural features were selected for repair and utilization, combined with displays of production tools and production and living traditions, forming comprehensive, “living” rural museums that integrate local architecture and rural folk customs, and becoming rural tourism attractions with considerable substance. This is a beneficial exploration of combining agriculture and rural areas with cultural heritage to build beautiful villages and develop leisure agriculture. To develop creative agriculture, we should continue to promote the building of beautiful villages, give play to the role of culture in increasing income and efficiency, and guide all localities to expand agriculture from a single production function to composite functions such as leisure sightseeing, farming experience, ecological protection, cultural inheritance and humanistic education.