Accelerate the Building of Agricultural Informatization to Boost the Development of Modern Agriculture

At present, China's level of agricultural informatization, whether compared with the standards for new socialist countryside construction or with the requirements of modern agricultural development, still has many inadequacies, and the contradictions and problems that exist are still very prominent.

Agricultural informatization is an important hallmark of modern agriculture and represents the high ground of modern agriculture. It plays an important pulling and driving role in accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development mode and building modern agriculture. For a long time, China has actively developed agricultural and rural informatization and has achieved considerable results.

However, at present, China's level of agricultural informatization, whether compared with the standards for new socialist countryside construction or with the requirements of modern agricultural development, still has many inadequacies, and the contradictions and problems that exist are still very prominent.

Under the new circumstances, China's agricultural informatization development faces new opportunities and challenges. We must seize the opportunities for agricultural development, vigorously advance the leapfrog development of agricultural informatization, enable modern agriculture to improve quality and efficiency in the course of the rapid development of informatization, and achieve the smooth and steady development of “synchronization of the four modernizations.” To this end, the following suggestions are offered:

1. Strengthen the government's awareness of informatization and provide strong support for agricultural informatization. Agriculture is a foundational industry of the national economy, and agricultural development bears on the national economy and people's livelihood. Agriculture is also an industry with high operational risks, relatively low returns, and a need for government support and protection. The development of agricultural informatization cannot be separated from government support and assistance. Government departments at all levels must deepen their understanding of the significance of building agricultural informatization, increase funding and human resource input for agricultural informatization, take the lead in actively establishing agricultural information networks with relevant government departments, and continuously enrich and update the content of these networks, so as to provide the necessary and systematic agricultural information support for the development of agricultural production and operations.

2. Strengthen the training and reserve of agricultural information technology talent and gradually raise farmers' level of information use. Great efforts should be made to organize a strong team of experts in agricultural economic management informatization, train a group of interdisciplinary talent who understand both information technology and agricultural production and operation management, formulate various preferential policies to attract high-level talent to participate in the research, development and creation of various agricultural information systems, improve the quality of agricultural economic management informatization construction, serve agricultural production, operation management and decision-making, and provide intellectual support for agricultural economic management informatization construction. At the same time, strengthen the training of talent for the promotion and use of agricultural information technology, with emphasis on cultivating farmers' information awareness, information knowledge and ability to apply information technology, and cultivate a new type of farmer who is educated, understands technology and knows how to run a business.

3. Effectively grasp the application of agricultural information technology. At present, from a global perspective, agricultural database technology (agricultural cloud computing and big data integration), agricultural expert network systems, agricultural simulation models, agricultural management decision-making technology, precision agriculture technology and 3S technology, as well as agricultural logistics information technology and agricultural bioengineering, occupy a leading position in modern agricultural technology. We should not only seize the technological high ground in terms of funding and talent, but also apply agricultural science and technology in agricultural production in light of local conditions, accelerate the speed of conversion into productivity, improve efficiency, and increase output and income. Priority should be given to developing agricultural information technology that farmers can see, use, that is down-to-earth and can make money, truly bringing tangible benefits to farmers.

4. Accelerate the establishment of electronic trading platforms for agricultural products. We must promptly carry out the transformation and upgrading of the infrastructure of large national agricultural product wholesale markets, improve the national agricultural product wholesale market information network and the rural market supply and demand information system, establish an agricultural product market information service system, guide and encourage leading enterprises to vigorously build e-commerce platforms, and form an agricultural e-commerce service system supported by wholesale markets, commercial centers, logistics dispatch centers and commodity distribution centers, so as to achieve the connection between the online and the physical.

⟦NL> 5. Establish and improve informatization service organizations at the township and village levels. The construction of village and township information service stations (points) can be merged with Party member distance education points, science and technology (culture) reading rooms, etc., and can also make use of associations, cooperative organizations, as well as brokers and large-scale farming and breeding households to establish points. The construction of village and township information service stations (points) should improve and perfect basic conditions such as personnel, equipment, premises and systems, actively encourage village and township information service stations (points) to use computer networks, radio and television, telephones and other multiple information dissemination channels to carry out diversified information services for farmers, truly achieve being oriented to reality, persisting in practical work and seeking practical results, narrow the urban-rural “digital divide,” and let farmers gain tangible benefits.

6. Do a good job of combining information networks with traditional media.