How can traditional agriculture go online? Vice Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun offers suggestions

In recent years, the hot "Internet thinking" has allowed many traditional industries to take off. Production tools determine the level of productivity, and the "Internet," an incomparably advanced "factor of production," has injected unlimited energy into the transformation and rebirth of traditional agriculture, once again pushing the path of upgrading traditional agriculture into the spotlight.

"The path of upgrading traditional agriculture under the Internet is actually about the issue of agricultural informatization." Niu Dun, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Vice Minister of Agriculture, hit the nail on the head as he elaborated on the path of upgrading traditional agriculture under the Internet. Ecological agriculture and the seed industry are expected to become hot sectors in 2014, attention to food security and land reform will run throughout 2014, the path of upgrading traditional agriculture has already become increasingly broad, and capital will also pour into agriculture in a race, while at the same time the government's support for agriculture will continue to increase.

Giving agricultural products the wings of the Internet

China is a major agricultural country, and at the present stage Chinese agriculture is in the midst of a transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture. The prominent problem in agricultural development is the contradiction between small-scale farmer production and large-scale market circulation. Against the backdrop of the Internet's rise, how to make traditional agriculture "walk together" with the Internet, realize the transition to modern agriculture, and achieve effective alignment between agricultural production and market demand is the greatest consideration on the path of agricultural upgrading.

In this regard, Niu Dun said that at the national level, in the process of rapidly advancing agriculturalization and urbanization, particular attention is also paid to the issues of informatization and agricultural modernization. The biggest problem of a market economy is that there must be symmetry of information. If, under Internet conditions, too little information is obtained, then one becomes weaker still. "Therefore, under Internet conditions, the important problem to be solved is the problem of information symmetry." Niu Dun said that the information farmers need should be released promptly and authoritatively online by the government, telling the farmer masses the price information, cost information, and sales information of means of production and agricultural products, so that farmers, as the main body of production and operation, can decide their own production plans.


Branding of agricultural products is an unavoidable path, and brand marketing cannot do without various new media. "Chu oranges, Liu peaches, Pan fruits" are all successful cases of viral communication with the help of Weibo and WeChat. It can be foreseen that in the future more people will speak for their hometowns or specialty agricultural products, and social media will become a new battlefield for agricultural product marketing.

To this end, Niu Dun suggested that the government should do a good job in investing in Internet policies and infrastructure, so that Internet mechanisms can be extended and truly serve farmers and serve agriculture. Traditional agriculture has long been at the low end of the value chain because of its low-value, slow-operating methods, while modern agriculture, operating with modern production methods, processing methods, and business methods, is undoubtedly a vast industry with unlimited potential and enormous wealth, an "emerging industry" after the Internet.

Cultivating new-type farmers as the future tillers of the fields

Since 2004, the central government has made "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" the theme of the "No. 1 Document" for 11 consecutive years. With the improvement of rural living standards, the increase in farmers' incomes, the increase in farmers' attention to their children's education, and the large-scale transfer of rural labor, the problem of rural hollowing-out has emerged, and the original fragmented business model has become increasingly unsuited to the needs of agricultural production. The question of "who will farm in the future" can no longer be avoided.

Niu Dun pointed out that this year's central "No. 1 Document" emphasizes the need to focus on cultivating new-type agricultural production and operation entities. This means both paying attention to guiding ordinary farming households to shift toward adopting advanced and applicable science and technology and modern factors of production, and adopting various methods such as rewards and subsidies to support joint-household operations, specialized large households, and family farms, and encouraging farmers to establish professional cooperatives, share cooperatives, and other multi-type, diversified farmer cooperatives. While continuously raising the level of intensified and specialized production and operation of farming households, develop moderate-scale operations in various forms, and form new types of production and operation organization in which farming households, farmer cooperatives, and leading enterprises cooperate with one another, complement each other's advantages, and benefit each other.

"Cultivate both inside and outside. Internally, we must cultivate new-type farmers as the future tillers of the fields; externally, we must rely on the strong support of national policies to cheer on and boost the upgrading of traditional agriculture under the Internet." Niu Dun said. Chinese agricultural products are bound to become bigger and stronger. This is the inevitable result when national policy, the social and economic environment, industrial scale, technical conditions, the competitive environment, and consumption levels and demand all reach a certain level. At present, policies are favorable, and social and economic conditions permit
    (Article source: CPPCC Network)