Agricultural crowdfunding: project creativity promotes Brand Agriculture

Crowdfunding, a branch of soaring Internet finance, is no longer new to many, but crowdfunding in the most traditional areas of agriculture is new. It has become a trend and fashion to mobilize the public to promote "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" investment, entrepreneurship, public welfare and so on, and it also plays an important role in enhancing the influence of the brand. Although agricultural crowdfunding is still in the testing stage, there is a lot of room for development in the long run. -- Editor

In February this year, the "emotional Village 2015 my Rural Dream Public Welfare crowdfunding campaign" was launched, which openly solicited excellent public welfare crowdfunding projects across the country, giving full play to the advantages of online and offline integration, and exploring the road of rural public welfare in the Internet era. Nowadays, more and more local governments, trade associations, institutions and individuals begin to apply the concept of crowdfunding to the development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. In Shanxi, Shandong, Hubei, Anhui, Shaanxi and other places, the practice of agricultural crowdfunding emerges one after another. It has become a trend and fashion to mobilize the public to promote "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" investment, entrepreneurship, public welfare and so on, and it also plays an important role in enhancing the influence of the brand. Although agricultural crowdfunding is still in the testing stage, there is a lot of room for development in the long run.

Why is "agricultural crowdfunding" so popular?

The biggest advantage of crowdfunding in agriculture is that it can get supporting services in the whole process from creativity to market development. At the same time, with the start-up capital and the first batch of customers, the founders can also absorb everyone's wisdom and have a higher success rate.

Crowdfunding, a branch of soaring Internet finance, is no longer new to many, but crowdfunding in the most traditional areas of agriculture is new. The so-called crowdfunding is an act of raising money from the masses to support the initiating individual or organization. It is composed of sponsors, investors and platforms. Generally speaking, sponsors and sponsors are connected through the network platform. It has the characteristics of low threshold, diversity, relying on the strength of the public and paying attention to creativity.

Agricultural crowdfunding originated in the United States, mainly using the Internet and social networks to innovate the original agricultural production process. The more famous agricultural crowdfunding websites in the United States are Fquare and Agfunder,Fquare, which brazenly announce that they are platforms for land transfer. Agfunder is similar to the type of crowdfunding sites such as roll call time and crowdfunding network, but the projects are concentrated in the field of agriculture.

In 2014, driven by Internet finance, China's agricultural crowdfunding welcomed the first batch of crab eaters. Agricultural crowdfunding platform "tasting fresh crowdfunding" has been launched, filling in the blank of domestic agricultural vertical field professional crowdfunding platform; "everyone" agricultural crowdfunding online located in F2F (FamilytoFarm); rural tourism and leisure crowdfunding platform "Township funding Network"; the first agricultural crowdfunding platform in Shandong Province is "organically favorable" online.

Li Yumin, partner and general manager of crowdfunding, said that the biggest advantage of holding hands with crowdfunding in agriculture is that it can get supporting services in the whole process from creativity to market development. He believes that there is an essential difference between agricultural crowdfunding and fresh e-commerce. E-commerce simply sells off-the-shelf products online, while agricultural crowdfunding has a complete idea before the product is formed. this model contains more content and optional products, and provides users with personalized customized services. it is a powerful means of new agricultural innovation.

Wei Yanan, head of the Agriculture and Industry Department of the Shaanxi Provincial CPC Committee of the Communist Youth League, believes that agricultural crowdfunding, as a new thing, has brought bright spots to agriculture, can be produced on demand, and can solve the problems of food safety, information asymmetry, production and marketing asymmetry, and so on. It can also solve the problems of complex flow and too many links, reduce costs and increase farmers' income.

At the same time, some founders who have innovative and entrepreneurial ideas and are willing to devote themselves to the development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers have found the opportunity to realize their dreams through the crowdfunding platform. With start-up capital and the first batch of customers, they can also absorb everyone's wisdom and have a higher success rate of entrepreneurship.

Zheng Fengtian, a professor at the School of Agriculture and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, wrote that two waves are driving the formation and development of "agricultural crowdfunding": nature and safety. Agriculture is an inevitable activity for human beings to understand and transform nature, and it is human nature to engage in agriculture. On the other hand, paying attention to and engaging in agriculture has also put many rich and time urbanites on the agenda, and many urban residents have rented land in the suburbs, which has just become a rising scene in our country.

Agricultural crowdfunding what?

Raise products, technology, public welfare, land, farms, equity, and rural tourism. As long as you can imagine.

Are we crowdfunding land, agricultural and livestock products or visiting and picking? This should focus on the individual characteristics of the region and the farm. You can raise products, technology, public welfare, land, farms, equity, rural tourism, etc., as long as you can imagine.

At present, the most common agricultural crowdfunding models in China are agricultural crowdfunding and "output determined by sales volume". As the initiator of the project, the farm launches the project on the crowdfunding platform to raise funds, plant and manage according to demand, and distribute the agricultural products directly to users when they are mature. For example, in the current agricultural crowdfunding projects in Hubei, there is a basic model: sponsors use crowdfunding funds to invest, farmers produce crops, and fresh and green agricultural products are sent directly to the investors.

Such crowdfunding is in its infancy. In fact, agricultural crowdfunding can occur in all aspects of the agricultural chain. Agricultural crowdfunding can also raise technology. Agfunder cuts in from this point of agricultural technology, which gives us a lot of reference and imagination, which can be a direction of development.

The emergence of crowdfunded land projects such as "gathering land" and "cultivated land treasure" has produced a "catfish" effect in the industry. Yu Xuebing, chairman and president of Lianzhong Leisure Industry Group Co., Ltd., believes that a couple running a farm of their own in a beautiful village is a beautiful story in itself, and green organic food is the dream of city dwellers. Giving investors economic interests and social welfare interests is enough to move investors.

And rural tourism. For example, Banshan Village in Fushan Township, Zhejiang Province, Linhai Huatian Rural Leisure Resort in Yinan County, Shandong Province, and so on, all built leisure tourism projects through crowdfunding not long ago. City people yearn for country life and peace of mind. If a city dweller can participate in the operation of an original residential accommodation, a rural resort hotel, or even an ordinary farmhouse for very little money, it will be the envy of many city dwellers. The return can be set to the annual length of stay at the hotel plus a profit dividend. And the circle of investors brings the source of guests to the hotel, forming a virtuous circle.

Public welfare crowdfunding actually has a greater need in agriculture, and many public welfare undertakings in rural areas are more and more recognized and involved by the society. Rural libraries, rural school facilities, rural environmental protection facilities and activities can be used as crowdfunding as long as they are given a mission. For example, in October last year, Cheng Wanjun, deputy magistrate of Yonghe County, Shanxi Province, launched a social welfare project of "crowdfunding Yonghe walnut round children's study dream," which raised a total of 860000 yuan, not only helping Yonghe farmers sell walnuts, but also realizing the study dream of urban kindergarten children.

Agricultural crowdfunding can also be equity-based, such as Dragon Boat Festival crowdfunding a zongzi brand, gathering people's funds and then returning equity, speculation concepts and tricks emerge one after another.