China Promotes Information Technology Development In the Agriculture Sector

On August 29, the Ministry of Agriculture of China published the 13 th Five Year National Agriculture and Rural Area Information Technology Development Plan, aiming to build a smart agriculture sector with information technology in the next five years. The Plan calls for increasing government grants and guiding funds from financial institutions to support the development of information technology in the agriculture sector, especially in following seven areas: (1) development and use of smart agriculture equipment; (2) regional experiment of internet of things of the agriculture sector; (3) E-commerce of the agriculture sector; (4) worldwide agriculture data investigation and analysis system; (5) application of information technology in the administration of the agriculture sector; (6) promotion of information technology in rural areas; and (7) raising the innovation ability in information technology for the agriculture sector.