Computers, software and the Internet are no longer novelties for many Chinese farmers, as technology spreads from the cities and brings agricultural modernization to areas such as the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

More than 100 agriculture information officials and specialists have watched the success of information technology in agriculture at a branch of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Group Corp. in the southern part of the autonomous region, near the Taklamakan Desert.

The corporation has employed state-of-the-art information technology in seeding, irrigation and data collection for soil property analysis.

Gao Zuoyu, an official in charge of information with the Ministry of Agriculture, praised the corporation as exemplary in its application of IT to agriculture.

He said that IT has become a new driving force in the allocation of agricultural resources, upgrading traditional agriculture and improving productivity since China first proposed "information agriculture" 10 years ago.

In 1995, the Ministry of Agriculture began building a national database and application systems for macro-regulation and control, as well as forecasting systems for natural disasters, plant diseases, pests, sale of farm products and market demand.

Computerized agriculture, an information project launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 1996, now covers more than 3 million hectares of farmland in 14 provinces and cities in the underdeveloped western region.

Rural communication is on the top of the agenda at the State Council, China's cabinet, this year.

At a conference on agricultural IT in May, it was announced that China would build five systems dedicated to agricultural monitoring and early warning.

The country will also extend a national agricultural information service network into rural counties and villages.

The government has established agricultural information service departments to collect data on production, pricing, natural calamities, plant diseases, pests and farmers’ incomes.

An official website at www.agri.gov.cn has integrated more than 20 other professional sites. It opened an online exposition in June 2004 for domestic growers and processors to sell their products. The virtual fair has drawn more than 1,400 agricultural firms to date.

"Promotion and application of information technology is the first step toward agricultural modernization," said Gao.

However, he pointed out that regional disparity still exists in agricultural information development.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2004)