Surfing the Internet at dusk has become a daily routine for Luo
Mingjun, a 52-year-old farmer in southwest China's Sichuan
Province, though he is still clumsy with the mouse.
He is part of the vanguard of rural residents with access to the
Internet. Arming farmers with science and technology is considered
essential to the nation's campaign to build a new socialist
countryside.
Thanks to the Internet, farmer Luo got a good bargain selling
oranges through the Internet in November.
The number of farmers on the Internet, like Luo, is growing,
though still tiny.
In relatively rich villages along the coast, farmers have been
seeking agricultural technologies and market information via the
Internet. But computers and the Internet are still novelties for
most of China's 900 million farmers.
The central government plans to step up construction of a rural
information network. It plans to provide telephone access for every
village and Internet access for every town over the next five
years.
Luo Mingjun, the owner of an orange orchard of two hectares, got
a Pentium III computer as a prize from the Pengshan County
government to encourage growing oranges.
Last year, while surfing the Internet, Luo spotted strong
national market demand for oranges. He spread the word and farmers
then consolidated their position, successfully raising the
wholesale price from US$0.07 cents per kilogram to 15 cents.
"We made a good deal thanks to information on the Internet," Luo
said.
He said some grateful villagers were considering buying
computers.
"We offer farmers computers in the hope that they can enjoy and
benefit from information technology. They act as bellwethers and
others will follow suit," said Li Wanwen, director of the bureau of
science and technology in Pengshan.
The county has set up a Website, www.pengshan.net, to market
produce and its oranges have become popular.
However, Li said some remote villages don't even have access to
telephones. In Kaixian County of Chongqing Municipality, farmers
receive short messages on agricultural technology and information
on their mobile phones from the local government.
However, among the 111 million netizens in China, only a tiny
percentage are farmers.
In Pengshan County, 9,200 computers are connected to the
Internet, but only 156 belong to farmers.
(Eastday.com March 17, 2006)