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 the China Internet Network Information (2014), "the
internet users in rural regions remain at 27.6% in comparison to 73.4% in urban
regions."
The situation of the imbalance in the diffusion of
internet access between urban and rural areas indicates the need for rural
regions to better improve their access to 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 the livelihoods of poor farmers.
The adoption of digital technological techniques in
agriculture farming would greatly improve efficiency in agriculture production
and this would lead to improvements in their standards of living. For
instance, Farmers who have access to digital technology are able to receive
disaster warnings and weather forecasts 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. People experiencing extreme poverty are struggling with basic
necessities such as food.
The levels of internet access could be improved
through subsidies by China’s 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 adopting of agriculture technology landscape of extreme
poverty-stricken regions would then be much possible with the basic digital
foundation. Poverty stricken regions such as Pingnan County is an example of a region
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 regions 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. The policies would
include devoting a larger part of resources to the development of rural
regions. This would not only 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 through education.
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. Mobile
commerce is one of the most viable ways for these rural citizens to be able to
get internet access. According to Alizila (2014), 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 would become 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 now has higher potential with the higher rates of users open to
technology.
With the basic foundation of technology being laid,
the (digital) agricultural technology could 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 about commodities are crucial for poor farmers
as they have their limits in terms of resources. If farmers can gain access on
prices of different commodities and make decisions it can lead to higher
profitability.
In conclusion, the Chinese government has to: do
what where to achieve what for whom?
The government has to ensure that benefits such as
the profits to service providers are taken care of. Also, the benefits of
technology towards helping crop 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 foresees 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.
This can be done through subsidies, viable options and by also making the
benefits of technology to their crops known to them.
Through vigorous development and constant
investment in rural areas, 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
Pender, J
(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
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