Recipient Institution:
China Agriculture University
2 Yuanmingyuan Xilu Road
Beijing 100094
China

Tel: (8610) 6289 3015
Fax: (8610) 6281 7605

Project Leader:
Prof. Shen ZuoRui
ipmist@cau.edu.cn

Amount and Duration: USD $ 9,000 / 12 months

1. PROJECT BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION

There have been more than 2000 of agriculture-oriented web sites spreading all over the mainland of China. However, just few web sites can be estimated to survive for long time, because most of them lack viable marketing mechanism. Generally, they emerged from administrative decree that was issued from the Central Government at the turn of the century and called as the "e-government" and "e-enterprise" projects. Minority of them are privately owned or run by joint-stock companies. This situation must be changed, while China faces to the rules and regulations of WTO. Well, how to reach the appropriate solutions?

In China, counties are almost agricultural and rural, having few application of Internet either for their governmental and political administration, or for economic and social development, although the so-called "government going to Internet" (GGTI, or usually said as "e-government") project was launched in 1999 and most central/provincial government agencies have constructed their own web sites. Well, how to guide information economy, besides marketing mechanism, for agricultural and rural areas on the county government level?

Now we are applying for a project that aims to break the present situation of formalist and nearly valueless applications of Internet, taking Qingdao as a prototype of county with ICT serving for agriculture and rural development. In Qingdao, a county complex in coastal and mountainous area in Shandong Province, China, there already have been several web sites for agriculture. We will reorganize, reconstruct and integrate them for value-added use and more profitable with other ICT tools and methodologies, to produce innovative practical solutions for the above problems.

2. PROJECT OBJECTIVES

· Project objectives: state precisely, what the project will aim to achieve and what specific outcomes will be reached

General Objective:

• To create a county paradigm to promote the transfer of agriculture and rural development from planned economy to marketing economy by using ICT-based e-government, e-extension, e-enterprise, and e-commerce.

Specific Objectives:

• To forge Qingdao as a demonstration county of "all-round ICT service" for agriculture and rural development with viable growth of economy and visible advancement of rural society.
• To make an internet/intranet platform to help Qingdao government in transparent formulation of agricultural policy, gradual realization of agricultural reform, public assessment of rural development plan, and other activities related to regulation of agro-economic composition, marketing of goods and services in rural areas, mountain development, and poverty alleviation.

3. PROJECT BENEFICIARIES

Project beneficiaries: state clearly which segments of the population will benefit from the research.

• Municipal Government of Qingdao: the AgQingdao system that should be developed in this project will become a key component of its e-government facility.
• Farmers: the hierarchical model of four levels and "all-round ICT service " will advise them to make right decisions on crop growing and business strategies; the ICT-enhanced marketing mechanism resulted from this project will help them to sell their products and make money greatly.
• Companies: The e-enterprise system that should be developed in this project will introduce modern management ideology and methodology.
• Marketers: the e-commerce tools provided from this project will assist them in finding more opportunities to sell their goods and services.

4. PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY

Project sustainability: state how continuity is to be sustained if your proposal is for developing a system that will exist after the project funding.

The Municipal Government of Qingdao has formulated a fifteen-year plan to develop ICTs in 2000. According to this plan, during the first five-year stage (2001-2005) the GGTI project will set up the information infrastructure and information service system and meet to the economic and social development of Qingdao. The Qingdao's GGTI project will build a public information exchange platform as the information pivot of Qingdao and ten mainstream networking systems as the backbone of "cyber-spatial Qingdao" or "digital Qingdao". According to this plan, up to the year of 2015, Qingdao will realize advanced networking applications, based on ATM, SDH, satellite and wireless communication. Multimedia applications will reach at home works and everyday lives. Also the achievements of ICTs will exert tremendous impacts on political and governmental administration.

In detail, the pivot platform will link all web sites and cover all rural districts and towns in Qingdao region, and access to numerous Internet applications in the outside by ISDN and satellite technology, as well as the using firewall technology for security. Construction of the pivot platform has started in December of 1999, and cost RMB$3,000,000 (about US$370,000) up to now. The information center of Qingdao has been settled and tested completely.

The ten mainstream networking systems include: Qingdao's macro-economic information networking, international trade information networking, enterprise and industry information networking, e-monetary networking, tax administration information networking, science and education information networking, medical and health information networking, agricultural information service networking, social assurance information service networking, political and governmental administration information networking.

Obviously, our R&D ITC granted project must contribute greatly to matching the agricultural information service networking system. So, its sustainability should be confident.

5. PROJECT METHODOLOGY

State clearly, in the methodology how the general and specific project objectives will be achieved.
It will be a participatory approach to the development strategy of information service. All stakeholders should be mobilized to contribute their money, labors and/or knowledge, to this project, such as government agencies, private sectors, companies, farmers, marketers, technicians and professionals with agricultural information and knowledge. And diverse methods should be practiced, for example, the county's calling center, village's broadcast and blackboard, field training courses, and distance learning. For detail, the following three sections give descriptions.

5.1 The Hierarchical Model of four levels

To create a county paradigm to promote the transfer of agriculture and rural society from planned economy to marketing economy, Qingdao government is turning its role from direct intervention in economic activities with a planning brain to guiding macro-economy with a brain to learning the market leverage. Today they are responsible for Internet infrastructure development and management to facilitate the market leverage. And technical and administrative policy will be ensured in utilizing the Internet infrastructure and management systems through this project.
In addition to Internet as the backbone, the county-run television station, telephone, mobile phone, calling center, and village-run broadcast, all will be used, so-called "all-round ICT service", to meet the economic and social development of Qingdao. Calling center is regarded as a good way to provide short information for farmers, because many farmers have home-phone, BP or mobile phone for their business.

To forge the demonstration county of "all-round ICT service" for agriculture and rural development, we will create a hierarchical model of four levels, consisting of region, county, district and village. Framework of this model is shown in Figure 1.
Qingdao is on the region level in the hierarchical model. Further, we focus our forces on Pingdu, one of five counties subordinating to Qingdao, during conducting this project. Then other four counties, Jiaozhou, Jimo, Jiaonan, and Laixi, will be spurred up in the next years.

Pingdu County has 28 rural towns. It will be better to select one of them to execute our project. On the village level, it will be advisable to select some of the villages to do essential jobs for our project, making "information villages". Some mountainous villages are still poor, so should be equipped with ICTs to overcome the digital division.
Based on the hierarchical model of four levels, an internet/intranet platform should be made to help Qingdao government in policy formulation, law and regulation monitoring, and public assessment of agricultural reform and rural development plan, such as regulation of agro-economic composition, marketing of goods and services in rural areas, mountain development, and poverty alleviation.

With cooperation with economists and sociologists, the hierarchical model of four levels should produce innovative practical solutions, to show viable growth of economy and visible advancement of rural society. Hopefully, this model will be repeatable for other areas within Qingdao and elsewhere. Figure 1. Framework of the hierarchical model of four levels

5.2 The AgQingdao System

The core technology to aid the performance of the hierarchical model of four levels is the AgQingdao system. We, the applicants from the IPMist laboratory of China Agricultural University, will use the methods with which we are familiar from our experience in conducting the Beijing FarmKnow project that was awarded by the PanAsia R&D Grant Programme in 1998-99. As a database on Microsoft NT SQL Server, the Beijing FarmKnow system proves successful in providing the access to IP-addressed information and knowledge of vegetable production for farmers in Beijing and surrounding areas, and it still continues develop more massive information resources and provide more appropriate knowledge[1]. Furthermore, the IPMist has just completed the construction of an information service system of the National Center of Agricultural Extension that is subordinated to the Ministry of Agriculture of China. So, using Microsoft NT SQL Server and other tools, we will construct the AgQingdao system, an integrated database system containing more than 20 specific databases.

According to the policy of Qingdao government, these specific databases will be developed each for stakeholders from government, or monetary agencies, or media. They are: Committee of Municipal Development Planning, Committee of Economy and Trade, Bureau of Financial Administration, Bureau of International Economic Trade, Bureau of Agriculture and Agricultural Machinery, Bureau of Environment Protection, Bureau of Marine and Aquatic Production, Bureau of Forestry, Bureau of Statistics, Bureau of Water Conservancy, Bureau of Tourism, Bureau of Tax Administration, Bureau of Science and Technology, Bureau of Education and Culture, Agricultural Development Bank, Television Station, Broadcast Station, Newspaper Agency, and so on. Each of the stakeholders will be entrusted with their exclusive right to maintain their own database with information and knowledge on policies, laws, science, and technologies, which are useful in agriculture and rural development. In addition to monitoring the government agencies' process of information service, the annual review of their service also will be executed as one of criteria to assess their contribution. Imperatively, their exclusive security right of database maintaining and statistic assessment mechanism should be ensured technically.

Embedded in the AgQingdao system, Wulian government will have a vital module as a county model to perform the e-governance, according to the hierarchical model. An e-government model on the count level like this has not emerged in China. The structure of the AgQingdao system is designed as Figure 2.

5.3 The e-Commerce System

Qingdao locates in Shandong Peninsula and coast of Yellow Sea, having great potential to develop domestic and international trade. It will be advisable to try the e-commerce to help the trade and agricultural transaction.

In our project, we will develop an e-commerce system for terminal transaction market of agricultural products. For this purpose, what should be selected to do e-commerce will be discussed further with the local people. It will be little complex and need the intervention of pertinent government agencies.

6. PROJECT TIME-LINE

• Project time-line: include a time-table/schedule of key activities.
• This project will be conducted for one year with the following timetable on a month-base and with the corresponding tasks in charge of the team members.
• January
• Draft an operational plan of the project together with the government agencies and companies (Shen, Dou and Xue), and
• Make a decision on village selection and terminal transaction market selection for this model (Shen and Dou).
• February
• Design the hierarchical model of four levels, including thoughtful discussions with the government on organization of agencies, companies, media, scientists, and other stakeholders (Shen and Li);
• Design a framework of the AgQingdao system, cooperated in the large with government agencies, NGOs, and companies, which are involved in television, telephone, mobile phone, and calling center (Shen, Xue and Gao); and
• Take a field survey of rural communities and farmers' demand for the all around information on industrial, livelihood, aging, gender, cultural, and geographic bases (Dou and Qin).
• March
• Take technological design of the AgQingdao system, including web-database over MS Windows NT (Xue, Gao and Qiao);
• Kick off spring action of the all-round information service in villages and markets selected, through the hierarchical model of four levels (Shen, Dou, and Qin); and
• Write the first quarter report of the project in Chinese and English (Shen).
• April
• Start programming of the the AgQingdao system (Xue, Gao and Qiao);
• The calling center invested by the government and constructed (Dou).
• Spring action of the all-round information service in villages and markets selected (Dou, Qin, and Huang).
• May
• Programming of the the AgQingdao system (Xue, Gao and Qiao).
• Continue to build the Calling Center (Dou).
• Spring action of the all-round information service in villages and markets selected through the hierarchical model of four levels (Dou and Qin).
• June
• Complete the the AgQingdao system (Xue, Gao and Qiao) and start to develop the AgQingdao database (Li, Gao and Qiao),
• Start Summer action of the all-round information service in villages and markets selected through the hierarchical model of four levels (Dou and Qin), and
• Write the first semester (second quarter) report of the project in Chinese and English (Shen).
• July
• Continue to develop the AgQingdao database (Li, Gao and Qiao),
• Summer action of the all-round information service in villages and markets selected through the hierarchical model of four levels (Dou and Qin), and
• Complete construction of the calling center.
• August
• Complete the primary development of the AgQingdao database (Li, Gao and Qiao),
• Test the calling center to serve for farmers and Rural people (Dou and Shen), and
• Summer action of the all-round information service in villages and markets selected through the hierarchical model of four levels (Dou and Qin).
• September
• Open the calling center service for farmers and Rural people (Dou and Shen),
• Start Autumn action of the all-round information service in villages and markets selected through the hierarchical model of four levels (Dou and Qin), and
• Write the third quarter report of the project in Chinese and English (Shen).
• October
• Autumn action of the all-round information service in villages and markets at large through the hierarchical model of four levels (Dou and Qin), and
• Maintain and modify the AgQingdao system and the AgQingdao database (Xue, Gao and Qiao).
• November
• Autumn action of the all-round information service in villages and markets at large through the hierarchical model of four levels (Dou and Qin), and
• Training courses opened for delegates from other places than Qingdao with the Qingdao counties model (Shen and Dou).
• December
• Start Autumn action of the all-round information service in villages and markets selected through the hierarchical model of four levels (Dou and Qin), and
• Write the final report of the project (Shen).

7. PROJECT OUTPUTS

• State what the project will produce and in what form it will be delivered and disseminated
• The AgQingdao system will become a key component of the e-government facility and also partially function as e-extension of agricultural science and technologies.
• An e-commerce system for terminal transaction market of agricultural products.
• A specific calling center serving for farmers.
• Preliminary performance of the hierarchical model.

8. PROJECT MONITORING

· Project monitoring: state what monitoring and/or evaluation processes are being proposed
We have remained good records in submitting our project progress reports during conducting of our former IDRC PanAsia R&D project, Beijing FarmKnow. For doing better in future conduction of the proposed project, it is necessary to give a self-critical comment on the Beijing FarmKnow project monitoring and evaluation processes. We can say that the Being FarmKnow is a consummated project, well for the development of agriculture-applied Internet in China, well for its consummation in technology, and well for future benefit of farming producers, marketers, and end consumers. We believe, the monitoring and/or evaluation that proceeded in our conduction the Beijing FarmKnow project should work well.

It can be trusted that we will submit our project progress reports timely on a semiannual basis and keep the AMIC staff in touch with AMIC and PanAsia web-sites and e-mails. Also, we will submit our reports to the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MoST) as domestic administrators of the ICT RnD project. Therefore, the parallel monitoring and evaluation processes will govern the progress of the proposed project regularly, efficiently, effectively, and perfectly, at least better than the FarmKnow project. Monitoring and evaluation will take place throughout the project, as semiannual reports submitted according to the above PROJECT TIME-LINE.

Read the Abstract of Project
Read the Interim Technical Report