Accelerate the digital transformation of agriculture

A strong country must first strengthen agriculture, and only by strengthening agriculture can the country be strong. At present, China’s digital economy is developing rapidly and has the foundation to promote the digital transformation of agriculture. It can promote the deep integration of the digital economy and agriculture, and provide technological wings for high-quality agricultural development. However, due to factors such as high cost of digital equipment, severe shortage of digital infrastructure, and high uncertainty in input-output benefits, the degree of agricultural digital transformation still lags far behind industrial and service industries. Therefore, it is necessary to guide agricultural producers and operators to accelerate digital transformation by providing material guarantees and prerequisites for agricultural digital transformation, reducing the cost of agricultural digital transformation, promoting the realization of the value of agricultural digital transformation, and establishing a talent support system for agricultural digital transformation.

To promote the digital transformation of agriculture in rural areas, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of information infrastructure such as broadband communication networks and mobile internet in rural areas, and combine them with the construction of high standard farmland. High standard farmland is not only an important means to ensure food security, but also an essential hardware foundation for the development of digital agriculture.

Due to high operating costs and insufficient financial strength of operators to support the comprehensive deployment of 5G base station construction in the short term, China’s current 5G base station construction mainly focuses on central urban areas, while the density and coverage of non central urban areas are relatively backward, making it difficult to meet the needs of grassroots people. We should further accelerate the construction of new infrastructure such as 5G and the agricultural Internet of Things, optimize the construction of software and hardware infrastructure such as rural information services and digital platforms, and promote the digital transformation, upgrading, and transformation of important infrastructure such as rural roads, water conservancy, electricity, and cold chain logistics. At the same time, the promotion and application of digital technology needs large-scale fixed assets investment, it is necessary to reduce the investment and financing costs of agricultural Internet of Things equipment and other digital technology promotion and application, and encourage financial institutions to give loans to the digital rural construction field. At the same time, third-party institutions can be used to evaluate the value of digital platforms and application systems purchased by agricultural enterprises, improving the accuracy of government financial subsidies for digital transformation of enterprises.

Currently, there are a wide variety of agricultural information systems in China, with over 50, 90% of which are information platforms built at the national, provincial, and municipal levels. However, the connections between the various systems are not strong, and information data sharing is relatively difficult. This current situation not only increases the cost of human and material resources, but also affects the scientific nature of agricultural decision-making. It is necessary to learn from the experience and practices of government digital platforms in data management, security maintenance, and other aspects. After thoroughly understanding the development of agricultural resources and industries on a provincial basis, it is necessary to enter a unified digital platform to achieve a unified map of agricultural data resources throughout the province. Through modeling and analysis, it can guide the decision-making of agricultural production and sales throughout the province.

To further increase the income of agricultural producers and operators and solve the problem of “increasing production without increasing income” in agriculture, digital technology can be used to enhance the industrial hierarchy from three aspects: extending the industrial chain, enhancing the value chain, and improving the innovation chain, to help realize the value of agricultural digital transformation.