Ways to improve the development of economy in China’s rural area

张清风

[Abstract]： As the growth of Chinese farmers income was decreasing in recent years， this article is aimed to find proper ways to improve the development of economy in Chinas rural area. By comparing different ways that has been implemented in other countries to discuss whether they are suitable or not to Chinese farmers， agritainment and e-commerce are thought to be two significant ways for the improvement.

[Key words]： economy in Chinas rural area， agritainment， e-commerce

Introduction

For China， farmland and agriculture are important source of wealth to the country， through providing employment and enrich economic diversity. However， from 2008 to 2012， the growth rate of Chinese farmers income dropped from 11.4% to 10.7%， according to Sun （2013）， this mainly caused by the following reasons： the slow increase of price of agricultural products， the fierce competition from global market， the decrease production inputs in rural area and the shortage of high-quality workforce.

Looking back on the history of Chinas rural reform to improve the productivity and profit， firstly in 1978， the household-responsibility system was proved to be a milestone that successfully rise the rural productivity and increase farmers income （Lin， 1992）. Then the government gradually cut down the agricultural tax， which made farmers keep more money to reproduce next year （Li， 2008）. Li also argued that the extension of education among the peasants contributed to the growth of rural economy through improving the skills and awareness of producing and marketing.

When it comes to the proper approaches to increase farmers income， the previous researchers talked from macro and micro perspectives. Macroscopically， Sun （2013） showed that abundant resource， such as mine， forest， wet land and pasture， should be fully used to improve rural economy. In addition， he suggested that building region characteristic is important as well， for example， ecological agriculture， which based on industrial recycling chain， could make full use of local nature resource and enhance producing efficiency. Travelling industry like agritainment is also referred by him. Furthermore， Rhodus et.al （1994） gave comments that people were willing to buy high-quality products with premium price， which means that farmers should improve the quality of their products and won their own reputation. Microcosmically， e-commerce， collecting demanding information and selling products on the internet， as Deng （2015） illustrated in his article， was not fully developed in China and has a good expectation in the future. Just like he said， in current situation， talents， trading platform and physical distribution are needed. In addition， Govindasamy et.al（ 1999） proved that retailing directly to customers could significantly increase farmers income， e-commerce seems to be a proper way for China as well. Agritainment， a kind of traveling in rural area， which fits to the popular culture----living healthily and close to the nature， is newly-developing in China and contributes to the development of rural economy recent years （Wang and Zuo， 2015）.

The plan of the paper is as following： Section2gives two specific approaches that implemented in foreign countries. Section3discusses whether these approaches are suitable or not for Chinas rural area. The conclusion are set in section 4.

Approaches in other countries

This section provides an agritainment example in Japan and an e-commerce example in the US to see the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Japan is regarded as the home of agritainment and the country has experienced a long history of developing this industry in rural area， which could bring us some good models. “Agritainment” is a combination of traveling and agricultural industry， which use the beautiful scenery， unique culture and delicious eco-food to attract customers to spend their holiday in rural area （Zeng， 2015）. With the wide spread of the concept that running out of the busy city life and enjoying life close to the nature in rural area， agritainment meets the requirement of people live in the city to relax and have a healthy life on vacation. In 1970s， some agritainments had been set up in Japan. These rural places mainly run business of orchard， which allowed people to travel and pick fruits and vegetables there. When it comes to 1980s， different kinds of agritainments emerged one after another， and some of them could even allow thousands of people to travel. After 2000， agritainment industry became mature and contributed largely to the GDP growth in Japan. In the developing history of agritainment in Japan， there are five business patterns----orchard， farm， village， school and apartment （Zeng， 2015）. For orchard and farm， they provide the service that makes customers experience working as a farmer， picking fruits or plowing， which could bring them sense of achievement and happiness of working. For village and apartment， they are similar to tourist attractions. Taking advantage of the beautiful scenery and human landscape， these two patterns successfully use the nature resource and build positive reputations for agritainment. It is worth mentioning that the apartment pattern is designed for the retired to give them a better choice to spending their retiring days with comfortable service and healthy food. For the school pattern， pupils are sent to the rural area to learn the skills of farming， and understand the importance of natural resource and healthy environment， which brings profit and benefit the education at the same time.

In the US， agribusiness through internet has three characteristics-----consolidation， product diversity and easily access to customers. According to Lerous et.al （2001）， e-commerce made everyone in the value chain of agricultural product closely combined together， for instance， the demand information is collected from the internet before the producing of agriculture products， then the input distribution would be properly arranged. After the products are ready to sell， the websites of agribusiness would be the retailers that connect to the consumers directly. Meanwhile， the physical distribution is ready for the delivery of products. Furthermore， by using the internet， different users needs could be reflected quickly and clearly， and relevant products could be designed and produced to meet these demands. After the sell， consumers could give their comments and advices through the internet at once， which makes the transaction between producer and consumer much more easily accessible comparing to the traditional sale pattern.

Discussion of the approaches

It could be easily concluded from the two examples above that both the two approaches implemented in the foreign countries have brought large amount of profit to the rural area. However， when it comes to China， things may be different， so it is essential to discuss the feasibility of the approaches for Chinas rural area.

Comparing to Japan， there are several shortages in current China. Firstly， high-quality talents are too few to run this business pattern well. A research did by Wang and Zuo （2015） showed that most people living in rural area were the old or low-educated persons due to most young labor force immigrate to the city. As a result， Chinas rural agritainment has remained less developed for years， because there are not enough high-quality talents in rural area to manage the industry and improve it to a higher level. They also argued that this industry did not run in a internal-connected system but no connection among each other. For instance， as agritainments are built in rural area， the transportation is not convenience and the supporting leisure facility is not complete as well， which would restrict the development of this industry. Moreover， homogeneous competition is another serious problem in Chinas agritainment. Most agritainment spots provide similar services and the price became the only factor to compete， in this way， the profit would be less and less in the future.

Comparing to the US， Chinas agricultural e-commerce is just starting. Deng （2015） thought there was no information platform for agricultural e-commerce in China， which could not meet the farmers need for the market updates. In addition， the internet technology is not widely used in mass production， so most farmers do not have the awareness or ability of doing agribusiness through e-commerce. Meanwhile， physical distribution is also essential to the e-commerce， however， this service in China is out-dated. Consumers often complain about the misdelivery or waiting for the products delivery for a long time， and this phenomenon would make the consumers lose the reliance to e-commerce business.

For China rural area， it still has innate advantages to run agribusiness by agritainment and e-commerce. The ample stock of natural resources， such as farmlands， orchards， pastures and forests， is an undeniable talent to run agritainment business. With the large amount immigration to the urban area， there is plenty of idled space in the village for the tourists to live and play. For the last decade， famous e-commerce companies， especially Alibaba and Tencent， have got the achievement that amazed the world. In this case， we have accumulated much experience in running e-commerce business， which is useful for the on-line agribusiness.

From the discussion above， agritainment and agribusiness in e-commerce are feasible in China to increase the income of farmers， as long as we make full use of our talent and overcome the shortage in current situation. First， we should focus on the talent cultivation for these two kinds of business， which is the precondition of an organized management and sustainable development. Second， investing more on the public service facility like transport is beneficial for all the players in the business chain. Third， operators should build business systems for agritainments and e-commerce， which would largely improve efficiency and save cost.

Conclusion

Facing the decline growth rate of Chinas rural area， this article tries to find proper ways to change this situation and sustainably increase the farmers income in the future. Two approaches implemented in other countries were chosen to be illustrated and discussed to see whether they are suitable or not for the development of rural area by comparing the different condition between foreign countries and China. From the discussion we could tell that although these two business is not mature in China with several shortages， they are still two efficient ways if three aspects could be improved----talents cultivation， public facility establishment and systematic management.

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