Rural E-commerce Development Helps Farmers Increase Income

Nie Junming, Pan Baode, Gao Dong

At the e-commerce entrepreneurship base in Guangrao County, Dongying City, Shandong Province, Rural Taobao staff are unloading goods according to customer orders. "Now that the village has a Taobao service station, agricultural supplies and daily necessities are delivered here by express, and it is really convenient for us to pick them up directly," said Xiao Liu, a villager who often shops online.

While rural e-commerce makes farmers' production and daily life more convenient, it also further drives employment and income growth for urban and rural residents. Inside villager Liu Haiyang's flower-growing greenhouse, workers are potting newly arrived flower seedlings such as arrowroot and anthurium. This year he planted 3 flower greenhouses, relying on Dongfang Flower Company and following the "craft manufacturer + contract farmer + distribution online seller" model to sell on online platforms, and he is expected to increase his income by 200,000 yuan per year. Farmers like Liu Haiyang who increase their income through "characteristic agriculture + e-commerce services" are not few. For 3 consecutive years, the per capita net income growth of farmers in Liu Haiyang's town has reached more than 13%.

"Last year, Guangrao County officially signed a rural Taobao project cooperation agreement with Alibaba Group, becoming the first county and district in the city to sign a rural Taobao cooperation agreement with Alibaba." A relevant person in charge of the Guangrao County Development and Reform Bureau said, "With the help of e-commerce, we implement precise docking and integration, promote integrated 'online + offline' marketing, and realize the sale of local products across the country, fulfilling farmers' dreams of starting businesses and becoming prosperous."

Through these models, Guangrao County has built 1 county-level service center and 41 village-level service stations, with 71 employees, having served more than 30,000 villagers cumulatively and completed 57,000 online sales orders cumulatively, while the e-commerce transaction volume has shown a "blowout" growth trend.