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)