Agricultural industrialization hitches a ride on the fast track of internet development
Some people use internet terminology to describe Chinese agriculture this way: the 1.0 business model that relies on individual physical labor; the rise of the 2.0 model represented by farms and parks that contract and transfer large tracts of land and use large machinery; and the 3.0 model represented by highly automated, mechanized precision production, as well as the highly intelligent 4.0 model that integrates the internet. We are still in the exploratory stage, especially when it comes to the application of the 4.0 model in agriculture, which has only just begun.
How should we understand the penetration of internet thinking and technology into agriculture? As agricultural industrialization advances in depth, how will the internet help industrialization unleash greater vitality? What role will agricultural enterprises play in this?
The internet opens the agricultural 4.0 model
Industry insiders believe that for a long time, the smallholder system of the 1.0 model has been constraining the development of agricultural productivity.
The household contract responsibility system for land is the foundation of the current productive forces, a 1.0 business model that relies on individual physical labor, and one of its drawbacks is that the agricultural circulation system is underdeveloped.
It can be said that the 1.0 model objectively suppressed the efficiency of the agricultural industrial chain. The production, sales, processing, transportation and other industrial links of agriculture did not form a complete system, and the structure was loose, greatly reducing the efficiency of agricultural circulation, so increases in farmers' income appeared slow. As a result, the state began to vigorously advocate agricultural industrialization in order to change the backward development model.
How should modern agriculture be developed, and how can new agricultural vitality be stimulated? With the deepening of the land transfer system, agriculture must rely on the means of agricultural industrialization and internet thinking, and through cross-sector integration, realize the transformation from the agricultural 1.0 and 2.0 models to the agricultural 3.0 and 4.0 models.
Agricultural entrepreneurs need internet thinking
In recent years, the application of IoT technology within the internet sphere has brought enormous changes to the planting and breeding industries in many places. Greenhouse fruits and vegetables achieve automatic drip irrigation, cattle and sheep feeding achieves automatic feed delivery, and field crop management and protection data is transmitted in real time. In particular, with the improvement of the agricultural industrialization chain, links in agricultural product production from planting and breeding, management and protection, harvesting, and processing to sales and logistics have achieved data-based transmission and information-based management.
Analyzing the development of modern agriculture in developed countries, due to the strong penetration of the internet, the operators, tools of labor and objects of labor in the agricultural industrialization chain have all undergone fundamental changes.
From the perspective of operators, those who "devise strategies while sitting in command" in the fields will increasingly be agricultural entrepreneurs and new-type professional farmers who possess internet thinking and master network technology. They use companies and other entities as operating vehicles, are deeply familiar with the ideas of agricultural industrialization, and possess modern agricultural management concepts.
From the perspective of tools of labor, operating on the land, in addition to tangible agricultural machinery, there is also the intangible IoT technology that links these machines and automated equipment together.
As for the objects of labor, the currently scattered land no longer meets the requirements of internet-based agricultural production. The land must be concentrated for industrialized and large-scale operation. Only in this way can the advantages of full coverage, seamless penetration and efficient interconnection of internet technology be reflected, thereby producing high-quality agricultural products.
The internet pulls the "high-speed rail" of agricultural industrialization
If agricultural industrialization is compared to a "high-speed rail" train, it organically links planting and breeding, management and protection, production, processing, logistics, sales and other links. To make this "high-speed rail" run faster and more efficiently, it cannot do without the high-speed channels supported by internet technology. To ensure the smooth operation of these high-speed channels requires both top-level design from the government and the continuous integration of ever-changing internet technology.
In recent years, the government has treated the internet as an important way to solve agricultural problems, and policy documents at all levels related to supporting agriculture and benefiting farmers have all highlighted the importance of the internet to agricultural development.
From agricultural product production to cultivating leading enterprises, from developing modern logistics and e-commerce to bringing information services into villages and households, all depend on the development of the agricultural internet. And driven by internet giants, the e-commerce field has performed most impressively. The two-way circulation system of "consumer goods going to the countryside, agricultural products entering the city" has gradually taken shape. Alibaba, JD.com and others have used "e-commerce going to the countryside" to establish operating systems in rural areas, activating the rural e-commerce ecosystem.
It can be said that the pioneering role of the e-commerce field has enabled point-to-point "direct connection" between agricultural product production areas and end consumers. Many agricultural enterprises and even farmers in production areas have created large numbers of online stores, and it is no longer difficult for consumers to buy fresh and authentic agricultural products online.
When reporters went to rural areas of Xinjiang to conduct interviews, although the place is far from the interior, they still made dried fruits such as jujubes, raisins and almonds "hot" across the country. Every household locally grows fruit trees, so a pattern formed in which parents are responsible for production and children are responsible for e-commerce operations. Many processing enterprises have even recruited these industrial villages and "talent" under their wing, using internet models and e-commerce sales channels to create a larger-scale industrial effect for local agricultural products.
Such examples are too numerous to mention. What we need to do is, while recognizing that the "internet plus" era is unstoppable, fully integrate internet thinking and technology into agriculture and realize the upgrading and replacement of the agricultural industrialization operation model. In this, the business community should have a better "performance."