Grant Amount: US$ 9,000

Keywords: AGRICULTURE, ECONOMIC, PRODUCTIVITY, GOVERNANCE, CHINA

Geographic coverage: China

Objective

The objective of this project is to assist farmers in marketing activities using information and communications technology (ICT) tools.

Research context

This project constructed a prototype ICT service for agriculture marketing in Cangzhou, located in the southeast of Hebei province, China. The core Internet technology is based on a hierarchical model of four levels including region, county, towns and villages. The project meets farmers’ needs by creating an "all-round ICT service" using web-based information systems combined with call centres and training components. The project uses a participatory strategy to develop its information services and mobilize stakeholders.

Target beneficiaries

This project benefits the municipal government of Qingdao, farmers, companies and traders in the target area.

Outputs

The project outputs include the AgCangzhou system, a key component of Cangzhou’s e-government facility, an e-extension service on agricultural research and technologies, an e-commerce system for marketing of agricultural products and a call centre serving farmers.

Research results and outcomes

The project began by defining criteria to select the project area. Factors included geographic location, sufficient ICT infrastructure, the willingness of the local farming community to try the new technology and a local government that would support the application of ICT for agriculture and farming. Based on these conditions, the project selected Cangzhou as the county to implement the prototype project.

The project began its work with the local government in March 2003 and had gained support from local officials and organizations. At this stage the project encountered a major setback. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic broke out in mid-April 2003 and travel restrictions imposed on the project team seriously hampered progress of the project for almost a year. The loss of time resulted in a loss of momentum for the project. Finally the project team was able to redefine the project and move to Hebei province.

To forge the prototype of “all-round ICT service” for agriculture and rural development, the project created a hierarchical model of four levels, consisting of region, county, town and village. This project framework was applied in Hebei province as follows: Cangzhou represents the regional level, Qingxian the county level, Mumendianzhen the town level, and Doyaoxinzhuang and Dongpaozhuang the village level. Using ICTs to create “information villages” and link them across all of these levels is the core concept of the AgCangzhou system.

The project developed a number ICT driven solutions towards the creation of the “information villages.” Due to government programmes intended to increase access to communications, almost every house in mainland China has telephone, making technical consultancy through telephone and mobile phone feasible. Building on this infrastructure the project set up a range of telephone consulting services. These include the 121 Hotline Service that provides answers to frequently asked questions from farmers. This was further enhanced with an expert hotline system to bridge the knowledge gap between farmers and experts in Qingxian. The project notes that more than 30,000 farmers have used the service since the system was founded. An additional service was the creation of an Agriculture and Rural Development (A&RD) Ambulance that is dispatched to villages to consult on pests, diseases or to bring medicine, pesticides and seeds to farmers.

The project also set up a range of web-based tools and applications. The project developed two multimedia systems on fruit diseases and pest control. It integrated its work with an A&RD website (http://www.qxkjj.com), to develop modules on News on Agricultural Science and Technology, a Farmer School, the Garden of Agricultural Science and Technology and an Agricultural Expert System. The website also features information on policy, law and links to related websites. In a separate initiative, the project integrated several websites to form a national web-based service system at http://www.agri.com.cn/. The branch websites cover more than 700 counties in 26 provinces with over 120,000 clients, and continues to expand.

The team worked with the Qingxian Bureau of Science and Technology to found the Centre for Productivity Promoting. During the first year, the Centre provided local communities with more than 2,000 items of information and trained about 10,000 farmers on the introduction of new crops farming techniques.

The project is seen to have contributed to substantially improved production yields in the target area. The total area of fruit trees is 0.8 million hectares and is comprised primarily of dates, pears and apples. In these areas the project has seen some remarkable increase in yields. The increase of yield per hectare is 2.25 tons for dates, 90 tons for pear and 52.5 tons for apples. Together, the increased yields indicate an increase in production value of RMB 330.28 million.

Awards

The project was awarded with the Prize of Progress in Science and Technology, conferred successively by Cangzhou government and Hebei provincial government in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

Project Duration

Start Date: March 2003
End Date: May 2005
Total Duration: 27 Months

Contact information

Professor Shen ZuoRui
China Agriculture University
2 Yuanmingyuan Xilu Road, Beijing 100094, China
Telephone: +86 10 6273 3015
Fax: +86 10 6273 3343
Email: ipmist@cau.edu.cn

Reference websites

http://www.agri.com.cn/.
http://www.cangzhou.gov.cn
http://cct.insm.org/firstPage.do
http://www.qxkjj.com
http://www.agri.gov.cn
http://www.aweb.com.cn
http://www.agrionline.net.cn