How agricultural input e-commerce can go the last mile
On April 6, as the cold of Qingming gradually fades and peach blossoms still shyly refuse to open, peach farmers in Pinggu District, Beijing, have begun moving among the various agricultural input stores, choosing the fertilizers and pesticides they will need. By the roadside in Houzhengwu Village, Wangxinzhuang Town, an agricultural input store named “Chuangmei Legou Agricultural Input E-commerce Experience Center” attracted many peach farmers. Judging by its exterior alone, the store looked like a chain pharmacy. Walking inside, fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, plant nutrients, and e-commerce experience products were arranged by category on the shelves, further reinforcing the image of a chain agricultural input store.
“Internet Plus agricultural inputs is advancing step by step. Only by seizing this opportunity can one have a place in the future. Farmers' demand for agricultural inputs is for quality products at reasonable prices and more professional technical services. The company focuses on agrochemical services for strawberries and peach trees, meets farmers' agricultural input needs through the Chuangmei Legou Agricultural Input E-commerce Experience Center, and provides solid technical services through the cloud plant protection system,” said Wu Di, general manager of Chuangmei Linong (Beijing) Crop Technology Co., Ltd. “The development of agricultural input e-commerce will create a stronger demand for technical services. This model of our company is an exploration of how agricultural input e-commerce can go the last mile.”
From focusing on strawberry agrochemical services to expanding into peach tree agrochemical services, Wu Di, a graduate of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has already operated four experience centers in Pinggu, Beijing, Changping, Beijing, and Jixian, Tianjin, and a fifth is about to begin operation.
“The agricultural input industry is different from other industries. The difficulty of technical extension in the fields must be solved for the road of agricultural input e-commerce to be solid,” Wu Di said. “The Chuangmei Legou Agricultural Input E-commerce Experience Center is an exploration of how e-commerce and farmers can connect.”
The biggest feature of the Chuangmei Legou Agricultural Input E-commerce Experience Center is ordering directly from manufacturers, which eliminates the intermediate links of traditional sales channels. While giving farmers better prices, it also ensures the authenticity of the supply.
“Buying fertilizer and pesticides is not like buying green vegetables. If the vegetables you buy taste bad, it is just one meal. If the pesticides are not genuine, a whole year's harvest is ruined.” Zhang Guang, a peach farmer from Dongxingyuan Village, Wangxinzhuang Town, told the reporter. Last year, some of his family's peach trees suffered from black spot disease. Large peaches that could have sold for two yuan per jin were sold for two mao per jin.
“To help farmers solve problems in production, fertilizer and pesticides are only the material embodiment of technology. More important is providing farmers with timely technical services.” Wu Di said. “The Chuangmei Legou Agricultural Input E-commerce Experience Center is not only an agricultural input sales outlet, but also a technical service station.”
On the outer wall of the greenhouse of Zhenshan Xingwang Strawberry Professional Cooperative in Huangsongyu Township, Pinggu District, a “star-rated service household” sign is especially eye-catching, with Wu Di's technical service phone number and the company's QR code. Zhang Changshan, chairman of the cooperative, said: “From providing strawberry seedlings to agricultural input services, Wu Di often comes to provide technical guidance. The cooperative's strawberry picking period is extended by nearly one month compared with others.”
In order to quickly deliver “efficient, authentic, and low-priced” agricultural input products to farmers and provide good agricultural technical services, Wu Di established the “cloud plant protection” system, using the company's professional technicians as the guiding team and developing cloud plant protection station chiefs in each village. Village-level station chiefs are willing to accept and promote special-effect fruit cultivation products and new technologies and are able to simply operate computers and mobile phones. The Chuangmei Legou Agricultural Input E-commerce Experience Center regularly provides station chiefs with training on new fruit tree cultivation technologies.
More and more farmers are being served. To ensure service quality, Wu Di requires that technical service personnel recruited must be university graduates from agricultural colleges. He Shuaidong graduated in 2014 from Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology with a major in protected agriculture and engineering. After nearly a year of work, he has honed his professional abilities in practice. Whether answering farmers' questions in the store or going to the fields to hold on-site meetings, if he did not say so, everyone would think he was already an old technician.
“For new fertilizers and pesticides, farmers only dare to use them with confidence after seeing the effects, which requires demonstration results first.” Wu Di said. He has accumulated a group of farmers who dare to try first and has also established a membership card mechanism. For farmers who apply for cards, not only are there discounts on agricultural input purchases, but technical follow-up services are also provided based on the card.