An Overview of the Current State of Agricultural Markets and Informatization Development Nationwide

Currently, agricultural market and informatization development is playing a revolutionary role in agricultural and rural development. The application of information technology can change traditional combinations of production factors to achieve cost savings and efficiency gains, and the development of information resources can innovate traditional agricultural management methods, integrate the traditionally fragmented segments of agriculture, expand marketing channels for agricultural products, and increase farmers' incomes. With the wings of informatization, modern agriculture can fly higher and farther.

Big data, the Internet of Things, cloud computing: new engines for smart agriculture development

On September 12, in the grand auditorium of the Chongqing Academy of Animal Sciences, principal officials from agricultural departments in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country watched the big screen with rapt attention. On the podium, a demonstrator operated a mobile phone, and the big screen displayed scenes hundreds of kilometers away: the oxygen pump in a fish pond automatically switched on, and the health status of cattle and pigs at a breeding farm was clear at a glance. Wang Junyan, deputy director of the Jilin Provincial Agricultural Commission, said that since 2013, Jilin has selected some advantageous and distinctive industries such as corn, rice, ginseng and protected vegetables to carry out the integration and demonstration application of Internet of Things technologies including agricultural condition management, production control and product traceability. "Through computers, platform big screens and mobile phones, it is possible to achieve agricultural condition monitoring, production information management, product traceability and intelligent control of some production processes for the relevant industries."

Qin Ji, director of the Market Information Division of the Jilin Provincial Agricultural Commission, added that a mobile phone service system project for soil testing and formulated fertilization in farmland, successfully developed and tested in Yitong County, has already been promoted and applied in 28 counties and cities across the province, and has radiated to neighboring provinces and regions such as Liaoning and Inner Mongolia.

On the agricultural product digital supervision platform in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang, through "Internet Plus" supervision, real-time monitoring is carried out on links such as raw milk production, procurement, transportation and pre-processing storage. Relying on the public internet and combined with Internet of Things technology, and using dairy farmers' mobile phones, milk stations, dairy enterprise POS machines, cameras and real-time on-site image transmission as operating tools and information transmission carriers, it achieves electronic statistics and settlement of milk accounts, wireless upload of images to control the operating process of milk trucks, and control of milk collection behavior at milk stations. "Through this big data and Internet of Things platform, the vast number of dairy farmers have obtained free information services such as policies and regulations, scientific breeding, and epidemic prevention and disease control, while management departments have also improved administrative efficiency and standardized management levels through milk industry development trends, digital statistics and situation analysis," said Xing Zhiguang, deputy director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Agricultural Commission.

Wang Naixi, a large-scale nori (laver) farmer in Yacheng Town, Xiapu County, Fujian, now thinks first of turning to the Strait Fisheries Network for help whenever he encounters a problem. The network has introduced an intelligent monitoring and remote disease diagnosis system for aquaculture, which can solve the problem of "difficulty in diagnosing fish diseases" for grassroots aquaculture fishermen at the earliest opportunity. "We also promptly release aquaculture technical guidance, fishery meteorology and disaster prevention and mitigation guidance information, and update seafood market trading quotations and Taiwan, China fishery information on a rolling daily basis, providing fast, timely and efficient services for aquatic technology extension personnel and fishery production operators," said Song Jianhua of the Fujian Ocean and Fisheries Department.

According to statistics from the Market and Informatization Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, in 2014, informatization pilot projects bringing information into villages and households were carried out in 22 counties across 10 provinces nationwide, and a number of construction models with promotion value were explored. In Tianjin, 9 agricultural districts and counties plus the Binhai New Area, totaling 127 townships and 3,700 administrative villages, have basically achieved full coverage of basic networks such as radio and television and telephones, with optical fiber coverage above 90% and public meteorological service coverage exceeding 95%; Zhejiang organized the development and promotion of mobile terminal software such as "Agricultural Technology Connect" and "Palm Farmer Mailbox," allowing users to directly request agricultural government affairs, agricultural technology services, agricultural product commerce and other content on demand; Guizhou, with cloud computing and agricultural big data as its core and with the application of the agricultural industry system as its focus, integrated various agricultural information resources and established an information exchange and sharing mechanism and comprehensive business scheduling mechanism based on "Cloud Guizhou" covering agricultural departments at all levels throughout the province.

Rural e-commerce platforms: a new expressway for the circulation of agricultural products

"To find local goods, go to the village entrance." Li Chuanli, a 58-year-old villager from Tong'an Village, Rongchang, Chongqing, carried a basket of eggs to the "At the Village Entrance" e-commerce platform near the village committee. "In the past, to sell eggs, I could only stand by the roadside and shout, and after standing there for half a day, no one came to buy. Now selling here, I can get 4 mao more per egg." Pointing to the dress she was wearing, Li Chuanli said she bought it online with money from selling local goods. "The 'At the Village Entrance' rural e-commerce platform in Tong'an Village has already explored and formed a new convenient service model of 'agricultural products going to the city and industrial goods going down to the village.'" Zhang Xue, a young college-graduate village official, is the village Party secretary and also the person in charge of the e-commerce platform. She said: "E-commerce is profoundly changing farmers' original ways of thinking, production and consumption."

"Without informatization there is no modernization. This year, the State Council has successively issued documents such as 'Advancing the Internet Plus Action,' 'Developing E-commerce' and the 'Big Data Development Action Outline,' all of which make agricultural marketization and informatization important content," said Zhang Hecheng, director of the Market and Informatization Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. Agricultural departments in all localities are developing e-commerce based on local distinctive industries, expanding marketing channels for agricultural products, raising the sales prices of agricultural products and increasing farmers' incomes.

In Jiangsu, in 2014, more than 18 billion yuan of agricultural products were marketed online across the province, making it an important channel for farmers to start businesses and increase incomes. Suining County alone has more than 9,400 online merchants and more than 11,000 online stores, with nearly 40,000 people directly employed and more than 60,000 jobs generated. "The per capita annual income of 'Taobao Villages' is more than 20,000 yuan, far higher than the average per capita income level of farmers in the province. Through carrying out agricultural product e-commerce, not only have the online marketing operation skills of the vast number of farmers been improved, but also the ties between farmers and the outside world have been brought closer, allowing farmers to learn a great deal of knowledge, broaden their horizons and enhance their ability to participate in the market." Xu Huizhong, deputy director of the Jiangsu Agricultural Commission, gave examples: in Chuanjiang Town, Nantong, of nearly 6,000 self-employed industrial and commercial households, about half carry out e-commerce business. In "Taobao Villages" such as Yanxia Village in Yanji Town, Suqian, and Yangshan Village in Wuxi, the proportion of villagers making online purchases has reached more than 60%.

Farmers are an important subject of agricultural product e-commerce. In Zhejiang, the agricultural system implements a promotion method of "government purchase plus enterprise operation," whereby the government purchases services from e-commerce service platforms through methods such as contract procurement, fixed-quota subsidies and subsidies in place of awards. For example, Suichang County provides each service station with 10,000 yuan in support funds to build "Ganjie" outlets of rural e-commerce service stations. It has established a county-level operations center, built a distribution platform, and provided unified warehousing, monitoring, quality control and preservation, distribution, logistics and after-sales service for agricultural products, implementing the model of "suppliers provide quality agricultural product packages, online merchants sell the product packages, and the distribution platform provides unified delivery." At present, Suichang has built 229 rural e-commerce service stations, achieving full coverage of all townships (subdistricts) and administrative villages.

"With the proposal of the 'Internet Plus' concept and the in-depth development of the project bringing information into villages and households, I believe governments in all localities will make full use of information technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, cloud computing and e-commerce, gather more actual needs of farming households, build platforms, and provide farming households with more precise, well-targeted and closely tailored information services," said Zhang Hecheng.