Internet Plus agriculture is not just about developing rural e-commerce; its applications are far broader

"Internet Plus agriculture" is by no means just about developing rural e-commerce. The "marriage" between the internet and agriculture is far from being as simple as opening an online local showcase or clicking a mouse to get connected. From a long-term development perspective, "Internet Plus agriculture" means bringing internet thinking into agriculture.

According to reports, the Ministry of Agriculture and Alibaba recently signed an agricultural e-commerce cooperation agreement in Suzhou, under which the two sides will cooperate in areas such as the information-to-village-and-household project, agricultural e-commerce, e-commerce poverty alleviation, and e-commerce training. This is also the first time the Ministry of Agriculture has "joined hands" with an e-commerce enterprise.

In recent years, with the development of e-commerce in the agricultural sector, "Internet Plus agriculture" has stood at the forefront of the times. As the "Internet Plus" tide surges, a magical chemical reaction is taking place between agriculture, which people see as the most "rustic," and the internet, which is seen as the most "foreign." Facing this blue ocean, internet giants are rushing to the countryside to "stake out territory." Local governments also hope to use the power of the internet to boost local economies and create showcase projects. For a time, agricultural e-commerce has been in full swing.

It can be seen that many high-quality agricultural products have indeed caught the e-commerce express in this wave and sell well across the country. At the forefront of the internet, farmers have moved from the arduous labor of "every drop of sweat breaking into eight petals" to the elegant completion of a gentle click of the mouse; from "going street to street and alley to alley to earn a shout" to building supermarkets on the internet; from "carrying cash home for the New Year" to taking care of agricultural loans with one stop at their doorstep. Along with the continuous improvement of agricultural modernization, farmers who once faced the yellow earth with their backs to the sky will ultimately complete the transformation from an "identity" to a "profession."

However, "Internet Plus agriculture" is by no means just about developing rural e-commerce. The "marriage" between the internet and agriculture is also far from being as simple as opening an online local showcase or clicking a mouse to get connected. From a long-term development perspective, "Internet Plus agriculture" means bringing internet thinking into agriculture, and in the blueprint of "new agriculture," connecting satellites in the sky with seeds in the ground, incorporating the slaughter of a single pig into a global agricultural data analysis system, making data "come alive" in industrial reshaping, and enabling agriculture to begin to "think." In addition, it is also necessary to use the power of science and technology to tap income-increasing potential, accelerate the development of "smart agriculture," help farmers build internet-of-things experimental and demonstration bases for field planting, protected horticulture, and large-scale breeding, promote cost-saving and efficiency-enhancing agricultural internet-of-things application models, and use the power of science and technology to liberate farmers from physical labor and from toil, exhaustion, and dirt. More importantly, through the development concepts and innovative models of the internet, it is necessary to change the production and organizational forms of agriculture, change the face of rural areas and farmers, and make farming a promising and enviable profession.

With the rise of e-commerce in rural areas, more and more migrant workers, college and secondary school graduates, and veterans, and even business elites and returnees from overseas, have begun returning to their hometowns to engage in agricultural entrepreneurship and innovation, becoming new-type farmers. They have brought advanced science and technology, management, and business concepts, innovatively sold specialty agricultural products, and introduced cultural creativity into the agricultural industry. "Farmer" has returned from an identity label to an occupational title, increasingly becoming a respectable and dignified profession.

In the future, we have too many expectations for e-commerce entering villages, but we should also think rationally. We should not let agriculture and farmers "get carried away and rush in all at once" in the great tide of the internet. Instead, we should find a development model suited to the characteristics of agriculture as an industry, so that the internet can truly take root in agriculture, take root in rural areas, and serve farmers. This is precisely where the hope and future of "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" in the new era lie.