Making Technology Work for China’s Farmers

To help develop relevant ICT solutions for Pujiang’s farmers, Microsoft is working on an information portal prototype with the Heshan Fruit Product Association. More than 10,000 of the farmers

in the county are members of the association, which provides a vital link to markets and knowledge outside their communities. Like other similar organizations in rural China, the Heshan Fruit Products Association offers its members nationwide sales channels and training courses in the latest agricultural methods and techniques.

In Pujiang, the association’s president, Chen Weijun has been personally delivering these training courses since the association was established in 2001. This involved a laborious schedule of travelling lectures. “Previously, I would visit 109 villages to meet with farmers face-to-face and deliver lectures on practical agricultural techniques,” says Chen. “It would take one quarter just to do one course, which was really exhausting. Now, with the Guantang ISC and Microsoft’s help in developing a training system, I won’t need to travel; most of the fruit farmers will be able to participate in the training long-distance.”

Currently being tested on a pilot group of fifty users, the prototype video training system will offer Chen’s courses to farmers throughout the county via the Internet.

The results of this and other Microsoft ISC projects are shared with the government to help them plan and execute digital inclusion policies for the country of 1.3 billion people. Li Banghua, vice director of the Chengdu office of the MII points out the importance of this geographical area in the government’s plan to bridge the digital divide in China: “Chengdu is a focus point for the national digital inclusion plan.” Li is also confident that the ISC project in Guantang will provide important data for future rural projects – “In Xinjin, where Microsoft opened an ISC in April, sixty percent of the local farmers now have greater access to important agricultural information and new sales channels.”

While Chang stresses that the project is still in an early and experimental stage, governments in Henan and Guizhou provinces are already planning to setting up similar ISCs with Microsoft. And, with rural administrators in other parts of China watching events in Guantang with growing interest, the drive to share the digital revolution with everyone might just, from here, go to the world.