E-commerce is embraced in rural China as a stepping stone to vitalization
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E-mail Beijing Review, November 20, 2020
At He Xiaofei's chicken farm, each bird wears a contraption reminiscent of the step-tracking device worn by fitness conscious people. These electronic trackers tied to the feet of the chicken record the number of steps they take. Buyers could scan the QR codes attached to the chickens to see how many steps they had walked.
At least 1 million steps have to be taken before they are put on the food chain because as He, manager of the farm in Wuyi, a county in Hebei Province in north China, explained to Xinhua News Agency that is the minimum exercise needed to ensure that chickens have tight muscles, which enhances the taste of the meat.
The free-range farm has about 10,000 chickens, many of them feeding only on natural food. The chicken has become a popular product on JD.com, one of China's e-commerce giants, basking in media attention.
For years Wuyi was one of the poorest counties in China, its alkaline soil making it unsuitable for agriculture. Also, nearly 60 percent of its residents were either old, ill or unemployed.
In 2016, JD.com signed an agreement with the local government to start the chicken farm as a poverty alleviation project. The company provided farmers with micro loans to buy chicks and logistical and marketing support after the chickens matured. Later, a cooperative was established to collectively raise the chickens.
Residents in the county also sell chicken feed, fruits and vegetables, and part-time jobs are available at the farm to increase their income. This single project provides 10 percent of the income of impoverished households in the county.
JD.com's founder and CEO Richard Liu once said that the agricultural industry in poor rural areas faces two challenges. One is the difficulty in selling produce at a good price, and the other is insufficient quality produce.
"E-commerce contributes greatly to poverty alleviation and rural revitalization," Cui Lili, Director of the Institute of E-Commerce at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told Beijing Review.
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