E-commerce bridges urban-rural gap as villagers prosper with Net
Print Edition
Two years ago, Liu Jinqing, a farmer in southeast China鈥檚 Fujian Province, was shocked that the 350 kilograms of dried sweet potatoes he had produced sold out online within a few days.
Liu decided to focus on the potato business. In 2017, he produced 2,400kg of dried sweet potatoes, making nearly 50,000 yuan (US$8,000), a handsome income for a farmer living in a remote village in the mountains.
E-commerce has helped poor farmers sell rural specialties and improve their livelihoods, as an increasing number of people turn to green and organic food, which farmers produce in abundance.
Chen Cuihua, head of a produce cooperative in Pucheng County, Fujian, said their annual sales volume climbed from 30 tons to over 100 tons after they opened an online shop.
Online retail volume in rural areas topped 1.24 trillion yuan in 2017, up 39.1 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
More than 9.8 million online shops were based in villages by the end of 2017, up 20.7 percent year on year, creating over 28 million jobs.
E-commerce is not the only digital technology that has benefited millions of farmers in China. Technology such as e-government, telemedicine, and intelligent monitoring are also transforming traditional lifestyles in rural areas.
In Dengguang Village, Fujian, Huang Jinguo, 68, lives alone in a hut, but he does not worry about burglars or falling ill.
鈥淲e have installed cameras in his house that are connected to the village鈥檚 monitoring system, so that we can be alerted and offer help in the event of an emergency,鈥 said village official Huang Xiaolian.
Villagers can also learn about local affairs, watch TV programs, use rental bikes, and shop online via a 鈥渟mart village鈥 platform set up in 2015.
Besides bridging the rural-urban gap in terms of living standards, digital technology has also helped lure migrant workers to return to villages, which have seen large numbers of farmers leave to find work in cities over past years.
Zeng Wei, 32, moved to Longtan Village, Fujian from neighboring Jiangxi Province, after he rented an old house to run a bookstore and teahouse, and another for a guesthouse.
鈥淭hanks to the Internet, e-commerce, and better logistics, rural life is not much different from that in the cities,鈥 said Zeng. 鈥淭he countryside is a perfect place for freelance painters, writers, and designers who prefer to live close to nature.鈥
As new inhabitants arrived, Longtan became lively again. The local elementary school was reopened, with new arrivals as teachers. 鈥淭he best way to revive rural areas is to bring more people in,鈥 said Zhang Zhengrong, a local official.
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