The future of agriculture-related e-commerce is glorious and the new farmers' abilities are in a panic.

On November 15, Xinnongbao, a mobile application platform dedicated to agricultural information services, was launched. According to reports, "New Nongbao" will support online agricultural shopping malls and offline entity chain service stores, integrate the traditional agricultural supply chain, change the traditional sales model, and achieve direct docking between agricultural manufacturers and farmers.

The emergence of "Xinnongbao" indicates that the mobile Internet and agriculture will achieve seamless docking. Before that, the "love road" between the Internet and agriculture has already begun, and agriculture has been marked with a deep brand of "Internet". The combination of the two has produced huge energy and broad prospects.

The Internet begins the "farming period"

The major e-commerce companies give full play to their respective advantages and actively distribute them in the field of agriculture.

Recently, the major e-commerce has been actively distributed in the field of agriculture. A photo circulated on the Internet shows more intuitively the infiltration of major e-commerce in China's rural areas: on the outer wall of a village house, two huge wall advertisements are tit for tat, with "if you want a good life, hurry up on Taobao". On the other side is "getting rich depends on labor, thrift on JD.com".

"after the successful listing of the New York Stock Exchange in the United States, agriculture-related e-commerce will become one of the three key areas of our future layout." Jin Jianhang, president of Alibaba Group, said recently. The tilt of Alibaba's strategic layout is entirely based on the great potential of agriculture-related e-commerce. According to statistics, from 2010 to now, the sales of agricultural products on Alibaba platform has grown from about 3.7 billion yuan in 2010 to more than 80 billion yuan by the end of this year, with an average annual growth rate of 112.15%. In 2013, sales of fresh products (including aquatic products, meat and fruits) on Taobao grew by 194.58%, ranking first among all categories.

Ali's movements are much more than that. Last month, Ali announced the launch of the "thousands of counties and villages" plan, which is expected to invest 10 billion yuan to set up a thousand county-level operation centers and 100000 village-level service stations within three to five years. This means that in the next few years, Alibaba will enable his e-commerce network to cover the top 3 counties and rural areas of 1max 6.

There are also many agriculture-related topics about JD.com, from the early days when Liu Qiangdong sold rice, to fresh products on the shelves, and then to the active layout of the "avant-garde station plan" in the county and township, all of which showed JD.com 's ambition to display his strength in the agricultural field.

According to some analysts, compared with Alibaba's emphasis on marketing layout strategy, JD.com relies on his own logistics system to set up information stations in rural areas and use them as distribution stations and pick-up points for network and rural logistics, so it is difficult to get a full pot in a short period of time. But JD.com agricultural e-commerce may not consider making money in previous years. Recently, the activity of "JD.com sending seeds to the countryside", which has been hotly discussed on the Internet, has surfaced JD.com 's idea of agricultural e-commerce layout, that is, JD.com provides high-quality seeds and fresh seedlings of agricultural products, which are cultivated by farmers in the rural market, and finally sold through the JD.com platform. Once this closed-loop layout is formed, JD.com will turn the vast rural areas into a huge fresh production base, and the competitiveness can be imagined.

While the two e-commerce giants are fighting fiercely in the agriculture-related field, other vertical e-commerce companies that focus on agricultural products are also growing. I buy net, which is owned by Cofco Group, is one of the best.

According to Tong Yang, senior director of the public relations department of my buying network, the order for agricultural and sideline products of my buying network ushered in a "blowout" this year, especially fresh products, with an increase of 600%.

In order to ensure product quality and reduce intermediate links, relying on the unique advantages of Cofco, we have set up "my Buy Network dedicated bases" in some areas where "landmark" agricultural products are produced, and carry out long-term cooperation with local farmers. "We have a professional team to guide, supervise and accept the production process of agricultural products to ensure the quality of the products." Tong Yang said.

In August this year, I announced the completion of round B financing, the amount of which reached 100 million US dollars. It is understood that this round of financing will be mainly used for warehousing, cold chain distribution, logistics, IT and other system construction and enhance user experience.

Give birth to a generation of "new farmers"

Whether farmers can accept the baptism of the Internet and become "new farmers" is the key to the "deep integration" of the Internet and agriculture.

The integration of the Internet and agriculture should not be a carnival of the major e-commerce companies alone. As the main body of this change, whether farmers can accept the baptism of the Internet and become a real "new farmer" is the key to the "deep integration" of the Internet and agriculture.

Some experts pointed out that the remarkable feature of the Internet is "nodalization and de-centralization", which is consistent with the development model of taking smaller individuals as economic units which is still common in rural areas of our country. From this point of view, the two inherently have the soil for integration.

Zhihong Guang, who has been engaged in private education for a long time, is in the lead. With the original intention of letting his relatives and friends eat healthy food, he bought a piece of land on the outskirts of Changchun City, specializing in growing food, vegetables and fruits. At first, he only guaranteed the supply of his family, relatives and friends, but later he used the Internet to seek subscribers and door-to-door supply. Through self-media such as Weibo or Wechat, he publishes information such as how to ensure that there are no pesticides and fertilizers in the process of vegetable production.

Feng Xiaoyan, a farmer in Jingbian, Shaanxi Province, used the Internet to find a big market for potatoes in her hometown. As early as 2012, Feng Xiaoyan took the opportunity of CCTV's "Avenue of Stars" to become famous, and her nickname "Sister Tudou" spread all over the country overnight.

On Weibo, Sister Tudou has dramatically increased her followers by posting pictures and sharing knowledge about how to eat potatoes. In 2013, through Weibo fans, Sister Tudou signed an order of 150 million yuan from the Shanghai market. At present, her online store customers are mainly from Weibo and Wechat.

In addition to the obvious changes, the changes of the Internet on rural social relations are also imperceptibly taking place.

Professor Zheng Yanan of Heilongjiang University and her graduate students took Chen Hongli, the owner of the well-known agricultural product store "Chen Da Dahua fragrant Rice Shop" on Taobao as a sample, to conduct a half-year investigation. The study found that the Internet not only brought him closer to the land when he was supposed to work in the city, but also to other young people in the same village.

Zheng Yanan believes that the "decentralized" nature of the Internet makes it possible for rural youth like Chen Hongli to subvert their fate. The embrace of the mobile Internet by the new generation of young farmers reflects the meaning of getting rich through labor and self-improvement through association. This kind of self-organization is not only an economic need, but also a psychological need. Relying on the Internet to sell trustworthy rice is not only a safety issue on the tip of the tongue, but also allows farmers to form a unique communication platform with the outside world.

Call for scale operation

To promote the application of Internet in agriculture, we should focus on a chain, not a point.

"Internet + Agriculture" looks beautiful, but there is an old saying: "it is hard to plant a delicious cherry tree." There are many practical obstacles to the application of Internet technology in agriculture, rural areas and farmers than in industry, cities and towns and citizens.

According to the 34th Statistical report on the Development of China's Internet released by the China Internet Information Center in July 2014, the rural population accounts for 28.2% of China's Internet users, reaching 178 million, although the increase is obvious, but based on the country's huge total rural population, there is still a huge gap between rural and urban Internet penetration.

It should be noted that there are still a small number of "new farmers" who voluntarily come from cities to rural areas to engage in agricultural activities like Zhi Hongguang. "We 'newly educated youths' who go to the countryside in cities are very familiar with and proficient in the use of the Internet, but at present, young people in rural areas are generally studying and working abroad, and most of the people left behind in rural areas are older farmers, even if the computer and the Internet are connected to the village. Still can't find anyone who can use it." In addition, different from industrial products such as clothing and cosmetics, agricultural products are subject to the weather and have their own characteristics such as long production cycle and many categories.

It is understood that there are only a handful of agriculture-related e-commerce companies that have built a mature chain from upstream supply, product gatekeeper to refrigerated preservation and logistics and distribution. According to some analysts, the transportation loss rate of fresh products is up to 20%, and the cost of cold chain logistics is so high that it continues to lose money. "I hope the government will focus its support for agriculture-related e-commerce on cold chain logistics," Tong Yang suggested.

Compared with other products, the history of "e-commerce" of agricultural products is still very short. At present, people are not completely used to buying agricultural products online. Tong Yang analysis: "the goal of our investment at this stage is to cultivate users' purchasing habits." I believe that after'85 'and' 90 'grow into the main purchasing force of the society, we will usher in better opportunities. "

Zhao Hui, deputy director of the leading Group Office of Agricultural E-commerce pilot work in Jilin Province, believes that to promote the application of the Internet in agriculture, we should focus on a chain, not a point. Without any link in the chain, it is difficult for other links to play a role.

Some experts pointed out that scale operation should be one of the ways for the further development of Internet agriculture, and scale can lay the foundation for the application of Internet technology, which in turn can improve the management level and operational efficiency of agriculture.

It is understood that the technology of "Internet + Internet of things" adapted to large-scale agriculture has been applied in some parts of our country. Especially in the field of precision agriculture, China has established 26 agricultural digital comprehensive application demonstration bases in Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, Jilin and other 7 provinces. An experiment conducted at a demonstration base in Heilongjiang showed that the yield of field crops in the demonstration area increased by 15% to 20%, and the economic benefit increased by 10%. However, it is undeniable that there is still a distance between the traditional small farmers' management and the production mode of "Internet + Internet of things".

From the field to the dining table, from the countryside to the city, there is a "net" apart, the sky is high and the earth is wide, and the integration is still on the road.