How Does Agricultural Information Reach Villages and Households? A Full Look at How Services Are Delivered on the Ground
Speaking of this village's "Yinong Information Service Station," Zhu Jinhong always has endless thanks to express, because every year he worried about how to sell the chickens his family raised. Last year, after posting information online through the station, within a few days, buyers from Shanghai and other places called one after another to place orders, and a Hangzhou resident even drove to his home and signed a long-term order on the spot. Now, not only does Old Zhu no longer worry about selling his chickens, but the price has more than tripled.
That is only one example. Now Old Zhu runs to the information station for everything: topping up phone credit, paying water and electricity bills, withdrawing money, online shopping, and so on. Even when he has problems with farming, he calls there to reach agricultural technical experts directly.
Is it really that convenient? Recently, a reporter made a special trip to Old Zhu's village - Paiqian Village, Sanren She Ethnic Township, Suichang County, Zhejiang Province - to find out.
One Door In, a Hundred Services Handled
At the Paiqian Village Committee, a sign reading "Yinong Information Service Station" is clearly visible at the entrance. Although the single-story brick-and-tile house looks a bit simple, upon stepping inside, one finds it is very fully equipped.
27-year-old Ye Zongxia came up to greet us. A few years ago, Xiao Ye married into Paiqian Village from Henan. In 2012, she became a full-time agent, and from then on, the "outsider" in others' words became a "close helper." No matter whether it was day or night, villagers went to her whenever they had something to handle.
Others describe this Yinong Information Service Station this way: one door in, a hundred services handled. It lives up to the name. Xiao Ye told the reporter that here, 138 administrative service items from 25 government departments, 52 types of commercial services from more than 60 enterprises, and many public-interest services are provided free of charge.
"If you don't believe it, take a look." Ye Zongxia took out a ledger, which clearly records what villagers come to handle each day: withdrawing money, buying things on their behalf, photocopying, consultations, and so on. Some villagers even come here when their home TV breaks down, when large tea growers need to recruit tea pickers, or when their children temporarily have no one to look after them.
"In the past, when villagers had problems and went to the township, not only did a round trip take half a day, but they often came back with nothing accomplished. Now they make one trip to the Yinong Information Service Station, hand everything to Xiao Ye, and it all gets done. It really is convenient," said villager Wang Weiyang.
Village Committee Director Lei Yuexin told the reporter: "Xiao Ye is capable. People in the village all call her the 'full-time housekeeper.' Now the villagers cannot do without the convenience service center at all. The village 'two committees' also asked Xiao Ye to serve concurrently as the village accountant, so she not only serves the villagers, but also serves the village 'two committees.'"
Hearing all this praise, Ye Zongxia felt a little embarrassed. She said every villager is an examiner, and how much year-end bonus she gets mainly depends on their scores, so she naturally serves with extra care.
Services Centered on Agricultural Production
Many villagers in Paiqian Village became prosperous by growing tea and bamboo. During the busy farming season, farmers worry most about two things: labor and sales channels. Today, these problems have been eased considerably because of the "Yinong Information Service Station."
Villager Weng Heqiang has several dozen mu of tea trees at home. In order to get the tea onto the market earlier and sell it at a better price, pre-Qingming tea often requires a large number of tea pickers, but rural labor is becoming scarcer and scarcer, and every year he worries about hiring people. This year he tried a different method. On March 14, he came early to the Yinong Information Service Station and asked Ye Zongxia to post a labor recruitment notice on the five-village networked labor supply and demand platform. Unexpectedly, a few days later, the tea pickers had all been recruited.
Besides connecting people with labor, Ye Zongxia can also help villagers post information about their own agricultural products to the Farmers' Mailbox. The Farmers' Mailbox is an online service platform built with great effort by Zhejiang, and one important function is to help farmers sell agricultural products.
"In the past, many villagers had no idea that the Farmers' Mailbox even existed. Now, through the information station, we have already helped them sell quite a lot of agricultural products such as moso bamboo, tea, and eggs. With broader sales channels, everyone's enthusiasm for production is also growing," Ye Zongxia said.
During the interview, a villager walked straight in, picked up the telephone on the counter, and the reporter thought it was just a casual chat. Unexpectedly, on the other end of the line was an agricultural technical expert, and the villager was anxiously asking for professional advice.
This telephone is called the "12316 Agricultural Information Service Hotline." Last year, the Suichang County Agriculture Bureau specially formed an expert team, whose members include chief experts for ten major industries, county-level agricultural technical instructors, township responsible agricultural technicians, and heads of various production and operation entities. When villagers pick up the phone to ask questions, these people respond accordingly, and if the issue still cannot be solved, they can connect directly to the provincial-level cloud call center.
In addition, for some policy-related questions, villagers can consult the agent directly. From the record book, the reporter saw that recently quite a few villagers had asked about matters such as rural cooperative medical insurance, land transfer, and rural old-age insurance.
"Three in One"
Bringing information into villages and households is essentially about solving the "last kilometer" problem of rural informatization, and the key is how to achieve sustainable operational capacity. For a single point like Paiqian Village, the annual operating cost is more than 20,000 yuan. If fully borne by the government, it would be a huge expenditure.
As early as 2011, Zhejiang had already built a province-wide network of village-level convenience service centers, but rural public services still had problems such as insufficient investment and a relatively low level. Suichang innovatively proposed: could a joint effort by "government, enterprises, and society" be used to explore a mechanism for the sustainable development of convenience service centers?
In this blueprint, the government, service providers, and operators form an "iron triangle" relationship. Suichang Jiayan Minsheng Affairs Service Co., Ltd., as the operating body, integrates with county-, township-, and village-level convenience service centers. The administrative village provides office space and facilities free of charge, while Jiayan Minsheng is responsible for standardized renovation of the premises, as well as appointing dedicated personnel and handling daily operations, providing one-stop rural public services.
The Suichang County government purchases services from Jiayan Minsheng Company, but it does not simply leave everything to it. To this end, together with more than 20 functional departments, it established a joint meeting system and a work guidance team, set up an access system for operating institutions and an access system for service items, and is responsible for resource integration and guidance and supervision. Service providers such as telecommunications, postal services, and finance are responsible for providing channels for commercial services and entering village-level convenience service centers, while also needing to pay a certain commission to the operator.
The Yinong Information Service Station in Suichang County, which uses the village-level convenience service center as its carrier, is the product of this "three in one" model of government leadership, enterprise operation, and social coordination. Based on earlier exploration and practice, in 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture designated Suichang as one of the first pilot counties in the country for bringing information into villages and households.
At this point, the sign of the "Yinong Information Service Station" was hung on the wall, and Suichang began a new journey of bringing rural information into villages and households. According to the pilot requirements, Suichang further proposed the concept of standardized construction, and by integrating fragmented supply resources and fragmented demand resources, it promoted the connection of various administrative services, various agricultural public-interest services, and e-commerce resources, forming a sustainable operating mechanism.
At present, Suichang has built 150 Yinong Information Service Stations with unified standards. Each service site provides more than 200 services covering villagers' production and daily life, including administrative services, market services, and public-interest services. Farmers can enjoy one-stop, all-round "close housekeeper" services here.