Online Farm Agents
By GE MIN & staff reporter QIU JIANGHONG
 Online transaction expands sales channels and arouses farmers' enthusiasm. |
The Internet has changed the way people live. Farmers in the remotest of villages have benefited from it and now want to join the ranks of China’s netizens.
"Online Farm Agent"
Several years ago, farmers in Zhangzhai Village, Fengxian County, Jiangsu Province lived a primitive lifestyle. Their sole income was from crops grown on one mu (1/15 hectare) of land per capita. They pledged to throw off the burden of poverty, but grain prices were low and the demand for fruits grown in local orchards fell short of supply, leaving produce to rot on trees.
Things remained the same until September of 2000, when young farmer Zhang Qiang saw a TV commercial for the Zhonghuaguodu website offering free agricultural information. Dispite being computer illiterate, he went to the county town 20 kilometers away to investigate. He found out that the fruit market was nearly saturated, but that the edible fungus market was booming. Zhang decided to invest 2,000 yuan in planting edible fungus in his courtyard. At harvest season, he advertised on the website, and within three days, his edible fungus had sold out.
Zhang took this as an opportunity to expand production, and earned 10,000 yuan that winter. Villagers came to consult him, asking him to help them advertise and contact buyers. Edible fungus planting became the village's major business, and Zhang's business transcended planting to include large-scale online long-distance trade. He was nicknamed "online farm agent."
There are many online farm agents like Zhang Qiang in Fengxian County -- fruit farmer Tang Huaihai from Songlou Town is one of them. In autumn of 2001, Tang advertised his freshly harvested apples on the net, and got an immediate response from fruit merchant Ji Langyan. Their transaction was conducted online. Inspired by the convenience of online trade, the two asked the dotcom company to design a personal web page for them. Thereafter, business boomed.
Fruit dealer Wang is another beneficiary of online service. He says that prices in many apple production bases are relatively high, but with the help of Internet, savvy businesspeople can limit costs. He buys fruit in bulk from Fengxian County, that he sells on at a fair price.
During the SARS epidemic in early 2003, face-to-face trade more or less ground to a halt as online transactions boomed.
 Online transactions are a convenient and profitable way to bring lower prices to customers. |
The Internet brings local agriculture to international markets, but it doesn't stop there. Other markets are starting to get web aware and now agents from industries such as timber and medicinal materials are marketing their products to a wider customer base.
Difficulties
The emergence of online farm agents proves that farmers have a certain level of Internet knowledge. Many farmers do not, however, have computers or network equipment, so they must go through dot com companies by means of telephone, fax, and mobile phone SMS (Short Message Service). Zhangzhai Village has a population of 1,000, but only one or two of its 300 households has a computer. The increased in farmers’ incomes is spent mainly on domestic necessities. Any surplus falls far short of the price of a computer. A millennium folk saying describes the situation: "I sold two donkeys for the main processor, five pigs for the color monitor, 50 kilograms of eggs for the keypad, and 100 kilograms of maize flour for the mouse."
Networking equipment is also hard to come by. Broadband has reached a few villages and towns, but is unavailable in most rural areas. Telephones have been installed in every village, but the dial-up networking costs are more than even urban citizens can afford, let alone farmers. Moreover, poor dial-up network quality makes it difficult to browse the net. One farmer in Zhangzhai Village bought a computer for that purpose, but could not afford the phone bills.
A third difficulty facing Internet farming is lack of computer knowledge. Most farmers have a middle school education, and it is only in vocational schools and universities that computer courses are compulsory. In this, the Internet era, there is a digital gap between farmers and the network that is imperative to close.
Optimistic Prospects for Rural Computer Market
Most of China's population lives in the countryside, and farmers' demands for computers grow daily. Computer consumption in China's rural areas falls into three categories: well-off families buy computers for their children's education, online farm agents buy them for browsing useful websites, and fashionable young people use them for recreation. Many computer manufacturers create marketing strategies specifically for the rural market. An example of this is the Lenovo Group's "Lenovo 1+1 (one computer for one household)" plan. Their relatively low prices give second-hand computers a big market share.
Alternatives to Broadband Service
As broadband is not available in most rural households, local governments use other methods. Farmers can get agricultural information through telephone voice messages, and browse websites on television upon installation of an STB (set top box) at the Cable TV terminal. However, implementation of these alternatives still requires financial and technological support.