Farmers in China’s remote villages are now trading agricultural products through the internet, allowing them to sell their products directly to the market.
Internet connectivity is provided by various information centers, and as a result farmers have seen their income increase by up to six times, IBN Live reported.
Statistics from the First Informatization and Modern Agriculture Exposition, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), showed that 99% of towns in China are connected to the internet.
For example, dried licorice root, used in Chinese traditional medicine, is sold online across the country from a remote village in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Feng Zixue, a farmer at Honghai village in Ningxia who sells 600 tons of licorice annually, said his profit last year exceeded RMB1 million ($149,254). His licorice is sold as far away as Hong Kong and Taiwan.