China trains 100 million farmers how to use smartphones

China has held training sessions for more than 100 million farmers on how to use smartphones since it launched a training project in 2016 to teach farmers how to use digital technologies to carry out farming activities, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on June 21.

A worker checks the growing condition of rice with a drone at the Sanhe farm in Xingde Village of Huinan County, northeast China's Jilin Province, July 6, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan)

Training on the use of smartphones is regarded as an important measure taken by the country to accelerate rural construction and rural rejuvenation, said Ma Youxiang, vice minister of agriculture and rural affairs, at the opening of a week-long smartphone training session that kicked off in Beijing.

The training project has greatly improved farmers’ skills in applying digital technologies in agriculture and shared with them the benefits of the internet, Ma explained, adding that agriculture and rural affairs departments at various levels should make sure that smartphones become new production tools for farmers after they master the necessary skills.

In recent years, mobile phone apps related to farm management, marketing, and rural governance have become more and more widely used by farmers. Over the past five years, relevant personnel have provided information services to about 600 million farmers, helping them sell 40 billion yuan worth of agricultural products in total.

Statistics indicated that around 309 million of China’s internet users lived in rural areas by the end of 2020, and the internet availability rate in rural areas neared 55.9 percent.