China has made a huge contribution to global poverty reduction, and rural poverty alleviation is the core of China's resolute victory in poverty alleviation. Judging from the poverty alleviation experience in China's rural areas, digital agriculture is a key channel for improving the quality and efficiency of agricultural products.
In recent years, substantial progress has been made in the in-depth development of online poverty alleviation actions, which has accelerated the process of non-netizens' conversion in remote and poverty-stricken areas. By the end of December 2020, the number of internet users in China was 989 million, and the internet penetration rate reached 70.4 percent, an increase of 5.9 percentage points from March 2020. Among them, the number of rural internet users was 309 million. As of November 2020, 98 percent of poor villages had access to optical fibers. Moreover, live-streaming e-commerce has entered the countryside to achieve full coverage of 832 poor counties, enabling poor areas to develop new business models of "Internet plus", and enhance the "hematopoietic" function of deprived areas.
In 2015, the State Council's Poverty Alleviation Office proposed 10 major projects aimed at alleviating poverty, and e-commerce was officially included in the policy system. Live e-commerce refers to a new online sales model that adopts live broadcast technology to display products at close range, answer queries, and provide shopping guides through internet platforms. The stores can run a live broadcast room by themselves, or promote it by professional anchors. Recently, livestreaming e-commerce has been employed as a new model for poverty alleviation. With the favor of the internet users, short-video platforms have shown a positive trend in the last decade.
Live e-commerce can help farmers deal with the unsalable agricultural products caused by lack of market information, low awareness of produces and insufficient promotion, assisting farmers to broaden sales coverage. According to data from Kuaishou, one of the most popular short-video apps in China, more than 19 million people earned income from Kuaishou, among which over 5 million came from the national-level impoverished counties in 2019. As per the data, there are about 1.15 million people selling goods with the annual sales of 19.3 billion in the national-level disadvantaged counties.
During the epidemic, people all over the world have encountered unprecedented hardships—economic stagnation and living limitations, which have brought huge economic losses to people. In these circumstances, farmers in rural areas also faced the difficulty in selling agricultural products. The presence of live broadcast has greatly promoted the sales of unsalable agricultural products, and also brought hope for poverty reduction in rural areas. Many people decided to do live e-commerce on short-video platforms during the blockade, and even the local magistrates were encouraged to be livestreamers for promoting the sales of produces.
With the county magistrates joining in the team of live delivery, the problem of agricultural products backlog could be solved, transferring the products from unsalable to out-of-stock. Due to the impact of the coronavirus, online retail has become a new outlet for live e-commerce. In addition to Kuaishou, other platforms such as Taobao, Douyin and Pinduoduo also became key platforms for county magistrates and mayors to be livestreamers, for the purpose of expanding the sales volume. The model of "county magistrate + live broadcast + delivery" has also allowed the first secretary, county magistrate and other grassroots leading cadres to play an active role in helping rural revitalization.
According to the "Report on China's Consumer Market Development in 2020" issued by the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, in the first half of 2020, there were more than 10 million live e-commerce broadcasts, with over 50 billion viewers and over 20 million products on the shelves. In terms of live-streaming e-commerce in rural areas, it has experienced a rapid development. The sales of national agricultural product network in the first three quarters of 2020 reached 288.41 billion yuan, an increase of 4.3 percent year-on-year.
For consumers, livestreaming of produces make it possible for them to experience the happiness of "what you get is what you see", shorten the distance between consumers and producers, and increase trust in products based on their trust in live streamers. What's more, the procedure of e-commerce is a complex and systematic project, involving product production, grading, packaging, and logistics. However, there are still some problems in supply chain capabilities and product quality assurance that need to be improved. So, it is necessary to promote the healthy development of live e-commerce through the synergy of the government, platforms, and industry associations.
Objectively speaking, shaking off poverty is not the finish line, but the starting point of a new life and new endeavor. On behalf of the interests of the Chinese people, the government will continue to be devoted to the promotion of rural vitalization on all fronts. We will continue to experience the country's accomplishments in the foreseeable future, leaving its impact in every inch of our daily life.
Zheng Tianqi is a graduate from Guangxi Arts University, majoring in intercultural communication.
Source: CHINA DAILY；Updated: 2021-08-26.
