Study On The Paths And Strategies Concerning Agricultural Informization

It was explicitly pointed out at the 16^th Party Congress that informization is an inevitable choice for accelerating the industrialization and modernization of China. Vigorous advancement of informization has been identified as a major task in economic development and reform for the first two decades of the 21st century and a new strategy of facilitating industrialization with informization has been proposed. Against this background, it has become a strategic issue in the current economic and social development to promote rural progress and modernize agriculture through informization.With a vast territory, China boasts of varying agricultural landscapes with strong regional characteristics. Its tropical area stretches through 267 counties and cities in 8 provinces and autonomous regions in South China, covering 480,000 square kilometers. The farmland in tropical areas occupies 94.86 million mu and the land suitable for growing tropical crops occupies more than 300 million mu. The agricultural population in tropical areas reaches 116 million. China has become an important nation in the production and trading of tropical agricultural produce.China's WTO membership, China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and cooperative initiatives around the pan-Pearl River Delta have brought both challenges and opportunities to the development of tropical agriculture in China. With increased import of tropical agricultural goods, restrictions of green barriers and strict requirements in technical standards, quality certification, packaging, identification and sanitary and environmental aspects, China faces severe challenges in the production and export of tropical agricultural goods. This further necessitates the research on the path and strategy of informization of tropical agriculture.Situated in the southernmost tip of China, Hainan is the largest tropical treasure land and is typical of tropical agriculture. Its abundant agricultural resources can serve as a good basis for the research on agricultural informization. Since Hainan became a province and a special economic zone in 1988, the strategy of invigorating agriculture through science and education has been adopted to boost information-based agriculture and green agriculture. In recent years, through the application of a computer-programmedagricultural expert system adapted to local conditions, farmers have been supervised in the selection of new and high-yielding strains, farming, sowing, use of fertilizers and field management. It is fair to say that some progress has been achieved in agricultural informization.In view of the above reasons, agricultural informization in tropical areas, especially in Hainan Province, is analysed. Based on the practices and theories on agricultural informization both home and abroad, the paper explores new approaches to agricultural informization in tropical areas, especially in Hainan, to promote the upgrading of agricultural structure and speed up optimum allocation of agricultural resources, thus improving the living quality and farming conditions of the agricultural population. In a sense, this paper will contribute to the agricultural development of tropical areas in the 21st century, develop theory on agricultural informization and provide theoretical support for decision making by Hainan provincial government concerning agricultural informatization.The dissertation structure is as follows.The first chapter is an introduction to the research background, objectives, significance, literature at home and abroad, contents and methodology.The second chapter is about basic concepts and theoretical implications, including the concept, implications and role of agricultural informization. With regard to problems in tropical areas including surplus labour force, low rate of resource possession per capita, backward production mode, poor educational basis, ethnic conflicts, wide urban and rural gap, low technological contents in products and underdeveloped agricultural infrastructure, the author bases the research on theories of economic growth, information economics, neo-institutionalism Agricultural economics, dual- structuralism and trio-structuralism.The third chapter offers an overview of agricultural informization in tropical areas both at home and abroad, including developed countries, tropical countries and tropical areas in China. In addition to studying the features and implications of agricultural informization in tropical countries, the author also summarizes the features and trends of agricultural informization in tropical areas of China.The fourth chapter describes the status quo of agricultural informization in Hainan, including agricultural IT infrastructure, information service network platform,information technology, multi-layer education system for promoting agricultural informization as well as relevant rules and regulations. Moreover, the author analyzes the problems and their root causes in agricultural informization through case studies of key projects in Hainan such as "Agricultural Science and Technology Support Center" and "Information Service System on Electronic Transaction of Natural Rubber".The fifth chapter addresses physiological, psychological and social mechanisms for improving farmers' acceptance of agricultural informization in Hainan. The author gives a historical review of agricultural education in China as well as theories on agricultural extension services in Western countries. Based on that, the author analyses the psychological impact of agricultural informization on farmers in Hainan and proposes effective channels for improving fanners' readiness in accepting agricultural informization.The sixth chapter focuses on strategic development of agricultural informization in Hainan from the perspectives of scientific development, knowledge economy, coordinated software and hardware development and geographical location advantages. The author discusses possible models of agricultural informization and highlights the importance of demonstrative projects, interdisciplinary research, extension services as well as integration of public welfare development with commercial investment. Finally, the author proposes a framework for the development agricultural informization in Hainan, including the role of governments and competent authorities at various levels, IT infrastructure and service network development, exploitation and utilization of tropical agricultural information, improvement of information system on tropical agricultural science and technology, establishment of demonstrative bases for IT application in tropical agriculture, farmers' access to market information service system as well as invigoration of agriculture through human resource development.