essay draft 3

Essay Draft 3

In today’s modern society, the trend of the development of digital technology has been more apparent over the years. This will continue to intensify in the future. This trend will be getting more apparent as many countries foresee the advantages. These advantages include broader academic development, a more conducive commercial landscape and better integration of information amongst people in the country. However, issues of digital disparity often surface, especially in developing countries such as China. According to China internet network information (2014), "the internet users in rural regions remain at 27.6% in comparison to 73.4% in urban regions". This indicates the issue of digital disparity.

The situation of the imbalance in the diffusion of internet access in urban and rural areas indicates the need for rural regions to better improve their exposure in digital technology. It is important as it would enable the rural community to better thrive in today’s competitive landscape of technological agriculture to be able to make improvements in their livelihoods.  

The adoption of technological techniques in agriculture farming would greatly improve efficiency in agriculture production and this would lead to improvements in their standards of living. Farmers are able to receive disaster warnings and weather forecast for their crops through technology (China Mobile Limited, 2009).  However, to enable farmers to gain access to these information, the first step is to get these people experiencing extreme poverty to be able to access to internet. 

The levels of internet access could be improved through subsidies by the ministry of finance to make enhancement in the technological skills of the citizens and also the usage of mobile commerce to the poor. Thereafter, the agriculture technology landscape of extreme poverty-stricken regions would then be possible. Farmers in poverty stricken regions such as Pingnan County is an example of aregion that has virtually no internet users and poor landscape for digital technology to develop. This results in minimal room for digital development in their agricultural sector.

The Chinese government has been making efforts to improve the situation of digital divide between the urban and rural region. According to the International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD) (2014)), the Chinese government has attempted to venture into various rural areas such as Shanxi, Jiling and Anhui. However, the attempts to venture into poorer rural region remain a challenge for the Chinese government. According to a corporate report written by China Mobile Limited (CML) (2009), through analytical assessments, Pingnan County has the most number of people amongst rural regions living below the poverty line, with minimal developments and internet users. In addition, the landscape of Pingnan County lacks the basic digital infrastructure and is not favourable for potential digital development to thrive.  

This indicates the challenge of bridging Pingnan County to digital technology. These people are poor and can only afford to obtain necessities for themselves to get on with their lives. Pender (2008) states that, if these poverty-stricken continue to lack behind in technological advancements, the access to better agricultural techniques would not be possible. The poverty situation in these regions would not improve at all without technology. 

The very first step is to bring digital access to the Pingnan communities. The government would have to make changes in their policies and direction in terms of subsidiary incentives. This not only to equip them with the necessary technological skills but also convince these people to start adopting technology. According to the Economic intelligence unit (2012), to make improvements in the digital divide situation, a good start would be having a healthy number of internet users. Therefore, the Chinese government should change its policies to stimulate the growth in internet users. The foundation of having high internet users is to first ensure that the citizens are technology literate. Policies should include the necessary incentives to better attract contractors to provide services to educate citizens so that they will be technologically literate. 

The government can also adopt mobile commerce. Since it is one of the most viable ways for these rural citizens to be able to get internet access. According to Melanie (2014), an associate from Alizila, access to internet through mobile phones are more viable as people cannot afford personal computers and mobile networks have larger geographical coverage with decent speeds. On top of the cheaper alternative of mobile commerce, subsidies from government is another way to further reduce the cost. With that, the networking and telecommunication in these regions becomes more viable.

The benefits of networking can then be presented to poor communities such as the Pingnan County’s community. With the cheaper alternative of mobile commerce along with government subsidies, the people would be more open to changes. When the people are open to the technological change, the government can then attract contractors to develop the region as the area is now more profitable with the higher rates of users open to technology. 

With the basic foundation of technology being laid, the agricultural technology can then be introduced to the farmers in Pingnan County. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (2011), “Because food represents a large share of farmer income and the budget of poor consumers, large price changes have large effects on real incomes”. This indicates that the information of commodities are crucial for poor farmers as they have their limits in terms of resources. These farmers can gain access on prices of different commodities and make decisions to ensure higher profitability. 

In conclusion, the government has to ensure that benefits such as the profits to contractors are taken care of. Also, the benefits of technology towards helping crops efficiency should be made known to the rural communities. The government should give out incentives and convince contractors on the potential of doing the job. The contractor would only do the job if it is profitable and when the contractor foresee the potential in developing the region. The citizens of the poor rural area would only be open to change and start using technology if the government is able to convince them to do so through subsidies, viable options and by also making the benefits of technology to their crops known to them. 

Through vigorous development, constant investment in rural areas and with time, the digital gap between the urban and rural region would eventually narrow. The situation of poverty would also improve drastically with more farmers adopting these technologies.

Reference:

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). (2014, June). Corporate booklet – Investing in rural china. Retrieved October 1, 2014. From : http://ifad.org/operations/projects/regions/pi/factsheets/cn.pdf\

China Mobile Limited (2009, December). Corporate Social responsibility report. Retrieved October 1, 2014. From: (http://www.chinamobileltd.com/en/ir/reports/ar2009/sd2009.pdf

 Alizila – Ali Baba Group (2014, July 8). Mobile Commerce Is Thriving in Unexpected Places. Retrieved October 1, 2014. From: http://www.alizila.com/mobile-commerce-thriving-unexpected-places-video

Chinese internet network information center. Statistical report on internet development in China (2013, January). Retrieved October 1, 2014.From: http://www1.cnnic.cn/IDR/ReportDownloads/201302/P020130221391269963814.pdf

Economic intelligence unit (2012). Smart policies to close divide. Retrieved October 1, 2014. From:http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un-dpadm/unpan049753.pdf\

Food and agriculture organisation of the United Nations (2011). Corporate booklet on food insecurity of the world. Retrieved October 25, 2014. From: http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2330e/i2330e.pdf

 

John Pender (2008). Research on Agricultural technology choices for poor farmers in less-favoured Areas of South and East Asia. Corporate booklet – Investing in rural china. Retrieved October 25, 2014. From: http://www.ifad.org/operations/projects/regions/pi/paper/5.pdf