Interim Meeting of Gansu Internet-Plus Based Socialized Agricultural Service System Development

The "Internet-Plus" action is a major project launched by the government of China. Through the combination of Internet technology and traditional industries, the government aims to enhance information sharing, cost reducing and efficiency improving. The Gansu Internet-Plus Agricultural Socialization Service System Development Project is a rural development project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the request of the Chinese government. This project has three outputs: (I) Development of a comprehensive information service and management platform for Gansu Province to handle the data obtained from the project facilities, so as to improve the efficiency of production and process and achieve the goal of e-Marketing; (II) Modernization of agricultural process, storage and marketing, enhancing the quality of distinctive agricultural products, and strengthening the capacity of logistics, storage, process and marketing facilities; (III) Modernization of agricultural production, combining high-value crop production systems with Internet of Things (IOT) applications to improve productivity and coordination with other agricultural sectors. The ADB has hired Naree International Limited (hereinafter called "NAREE") to carry out project technical assistance consulting services.

On October 30^th, 2018, Gansu Province Internet-Plus Agricultural Socialization Service System Development Project interim meeting was held successfully in Gansu Province Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Jan Hinrichs (the ADB’s Project Manager), Nogendra Sapkot (the ADB’s Senior Social Development Specialist, CHEN Fuwen, (the Deputy Director of Gansu Supply and Marketing Cooperative Council), MA Cunsheng, (the Director of the International Department of Gansu Provincial FinanceDepartment), and CHENG Wei (the Deputy Director of the Foreign Investment Departmentof Gansu Provincial Development and Reform Commission) attended the meeting with the specialists from Gansu Supply and Marketing Cooperative, the Project Preparation Institution, the EIA Preparation Institution, the sub-project units and NAREE. During the meeting, the progress and problems of the project are discussed by the participants.

TheTechnical Assistance (TA) team leader, John Wicks, elaborated the interim reportand the progress of preparation conducted by the executing agency (EA) and the project management office (PMO). Through the analysis of the impact, results and outputs of the project, the TA team combed out the parts needed to be improved in the project design. The team also proposed improvements for the social-effect analysis, financial and economic analysis in the feasibility study report (FSR) of the project. At present, eight sub-projects have been initially defined, including the construction of the whole industry chain service system of the agricultural products (eg. liquorice, Broussonetia, summer vegetables in theplateau, etc.), the construction of the IOT basement for agricultural products, construction of Internet-Plus agricultural socialized service system platform and etc. Jan Hinrichs emphasized that the next priority would be the coordination and synchronization between the ADB's approval process and the national approval process. The PMO and the TA team should continue to maintain the close coordination and cooperation. The FSR Preparation Institute should carry out financial and economic analysis, and FSR Preparation Institute and EIA Preparation institute should complete the data collection and the information verification in social, land use and environment.

After the meeting, ADB officers and NAREE TA team conducted a field visiting in sub project areas in Baiyin, Wuwei, Dingxi and Lanzhou. The participants in the interim workshop agreed that: (I) Through the Internet-Plus policy, farmers and agribusiness would be able to obtain long-term investments and they would access to new markets. The policy would also contribute to improvement of production, productivity and added value. thereby it would enhance links between farmers and marketing, improve product quality control, and achieve fair benefit sharing; (II)The development of the platform would enhance the comprehensive service ability of Gansu Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, thus it would enhance the safety of agricultural production, (III) The modernization of agricultural process, storage and marketing would lead to the improvement of the distinctive agricultural products’ quality and the capacity of delivering, storage, processing and marketing facilities; (IV) Modernization of agricultural production would contribute to the combination of high-value crop production systems and IOT’s hardware and software, thereby the production efficiency and coordination between agricultural sectors would be improved.