Enhancements give farmers more ways to boost incomes

China will improve internet services and IT infrastructure under the "Internet Plus Agriculture" model to promote integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas and bring farmers more business opportunities that help increase their incomes, officials decided at a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

It was agreed at the meeting that internet technologies will be extensively applied to make agriproduction better targeted and effective and enable farmers to adapt to shifting market dynamics, which are crucial to upgrading agricultural performance, raising farmers' incomes, and diversifying their channels of employment.

"The Internet Plus Agriculture model, as an important means for integrated rural development, has made a notable difference in recent years," Li said. "This model has played a key role in raising farmers' incomes and helping tide them over low prices of agricultural commodities."

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said that recent years have seen new forms of industry flourish in rural areas, driven by a boom in local e-commerce. In 2017, online retail sales in rural areas totaled 1.25 trillion yuan ($189.5 billion), of which the sales of agriproducts approached 300 billion yuan. Over 28 million jobs were created as a result. Meanwhile, 7.4 million people chose to start businesses in rural areas in 2017.

"Better tailored to diverse consumer needs, most online agricultural goods can sell at a higher price than offline," Li said. "The Internet Plus Agriculture model will be critical for creating rural employment, increasing farmers' income and boosting rural development."

The meeting on Wednesday adopted several measures to develop the Internet Plus Agriculture model for integrated rural development. Big data, the internet of things and cloud computing will be harnessed for more efficient agriproduction management and for digitized, internet-based and smart agriproduction and operation, particularly in areas such as seed breeding, farmland management and pest control.

The Internet Plus model will be implemented to widen the circulation of agriproducts. The services of e-commerce platforms and logistics efficiency will be improved to better match the demand of e-commerce businesses and supply from small household farmers, family farms and farm cooperatives.

Supporting facilities, such as processing, packaging, storage, preservation and cold chain logistics will be strengthened to resolve the underpricing of quality products, while internet infrastructure in rural areas will be improved.

More training on IT applications will be provided to farmers and agriculture businesses of all sizes so that smartphones can become a new and powerful farm implement in boosting rural development.

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