Research On The Contemporary Agricultural Information Service In Westarea Of China

The rural reform began in the1980s is not only a turning point of economic development, but also the turning point of the agricultural information service. The reform expands the scope of independent decision-making of farmers, increases their demand for information, establishes a series of information services in the reality rural areas and virtual network space, and forms the basic framework of agricultural information service system in Northwest China. Agriculture Experts Compound in Baoji, Agriculture High-tech Achievement Expo, in Yangling,"school-guided-rural development" mode in Huangyangchuan, and agriculture extension of Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, etc., share distinctive characteristics, remarkable achievement and great attention of domestic scholars in agriculture information service. At the same time, since the agricultural production value holds very large proportion; there is a great population in rural area; and the farmers’information needs haven’t been met effectively, it is more significant and more practical of this paper to take northwest area for instance. The effective information service has played an irreplaceable role in meeting the information needs of farmers, narrowing the "digital divide" between urban and rural areas, and promoting the building of a new socialist countryside. However, due to the great changes of the rural social environment in the new era, the objects, particularly the information needs of farmers, are diverse, complex, and profound; therefore, it is essential to re-examine the agricultural information service system in Northwest China and continue to study on certain key issues thereof.Agriculture information service is an organic composition of the agricultural information service system. The current agricultural information service system is characterized in that the modes of service are diverse, the service provider lies both in government and enterprises, the service object aims at farmers, the dissemination channel alternates between entitative and virtual channels, and the service content is mainly about agriculture production and daily life. The operating mechanism of the information service includes three modes: government-supported mode, farmer communities’self-help mode and market-oriented mode. The study focuses on the following five issues:What kind of information does the farmer need, especially the farmer in poorer areas of Northwest China? How to develop agricultural information resources effectively? What are the difficulties of agriculture information dissemination? What are the different service effects of different service modes and what are the deep reasons why the intended service effects can not be achieved? What kinds of development ideas and countermeasures should be followed in agricultural information service system and from which aspects breakthroughs and innovations can be made? These issues cover the contents of the information needs, information services, information development, information dissemination and other topics on the construction of agricultural information service system.Firstly, the information services constructivism emphasizes that effective information services must rely on the users’needs understood by information providers, and the design of the information services must be based on in-depth study of the users. Based on the questionnaire survey on nearly a thousand farmers and home interviews on part of the subjects in recent four years, it is showed the production and life information is the main requirement; traditional media is the main access to information; the reliable information is mainly from traditional media; the agricultural production technology is mainly disseminated through interpersonal communication; friends, neighbors and acquaintances are always the main resorts to get help when production problems arise; and farmers think highly about the utility values of the agricultural science and technology information, but are not satisfied with effects of the services offered by scientific and technical personnel from township.Secondly, as the foundation of the information service, information resources development faces the objective problems that information, especially the network information is seriously polluted; the standards and specifications are insufficient; and the levels of information acquisition, analysis and processing are low. It is proved by a large number of interviews that although the construction of database and agricultural network needs to be strengthened, the cruel reality we have to face is that the two types of resources are seldom, even never used by the farmers. Therefore, the information resources development should base on the information needs of farmers, insist on the leading role of government, focus on the development of the agricultural risk resources, reinforce the integration of agricultural information resources, and adhere to the deep integration of such development modes as follow:the "vertical-based and traverse as a supplement" development mode, the "top-down" development mode, and the joint intensive management development mode.Thirdly, the knowledge gap theory accurately explains the defects in the design of the current agricultural information dissemination system. Based on large-scale investigation, it is found that the information disseminated through radio and television is entertaining, the information disseminated through books and periodicals is leisure, and the information disseminated through network is seriously missing, at the same time, the information can be disseminated effectively through farmers’information association. During the construction of agricultural information dissemination system, farmers should be the leading role in information dissemination,"bottom-up" information dissemination system needs to be built, and the information transmission mode of "media-rural brokers-rural audiences" would be more popular among farmers, in particular to the farmers in the northwest remote villages.Fourthly, the improvement of information service infrastructure, the diversity of information service mode and the innovation of information service system haven’t brought perfect service effects, in particular to the use of government information services. Considering the sluggish network service and limited entity service, the "dual structure" in economic and social development also exists in the information service, which results in "digital gap" and "distance". At the same time, in the perspective of farmers, the interest division between government and farmers, the formalism of grass-roots governments, the problems of information control, and the cooperation between businessmen and officials in certain service fields all represent the nonchalant attitude of farmers to the information service provided by government to a greater extent. To some extent, non-governmental information service makes up for a lack of government information services, but the limitations are obvious:the entertaining mass media is difficult to meet personalized information need of farmers effectively, while interpersonal information exchange is direct and true, but it may lead to the result of herd behavior and the similar.Fifthly, since the agricultural information service system shows strong endogenous demand, weak internal force and insufficient supply of outer force, the information service system needs to be reconstructed or improved fundamentally based on the institutional change theory. The development idea of information service should center in farmers, highlight professional services and applicable choices of information technology. Under the reality that the overall service system is still not effectively changed, we may carry out breakthroughs and innovations on part of the information service system, such as Cultural Information Resources Sharing Project, drifting libraries, college-graduate village officials, rural integration information service stations etc.. As for the development idea of agricultural information service system, it is proved that the government should play a leading role during the construction of agricultural information service system; and we should try to cultivate the rural information market, preclude and dissolve the risk of information services, strengthen the development of agricultural information resources, improve the effectiveness of resource utilization, reinforce the standardization construction of agricultural information, improve information sharing mechanisms, explore the healthy development mode of operating mechanism for information service system, train the information service teams, increase the consumption level of farmers’ information consciousness, build a multi-level agricultural information service system, and guide the agricultural information services into a flat direction.The innovations of this paper are as follow:(1) the innovations of research methods:the knowledge mapping software is used to make a quantitative visual analysis on domestic and foreign literatures in recent ten years; and primary and secondary questionnaires are used to make a wide-scope investigation on information needs of farmers;(2) the innovations of research viewpoints:traditional media is not only regarded as a main access to information, but also a reliable source of information. Up to now, the acquirements of production technology information and consultations of production and daily life have mainly depended on rural social network, and the technology services offered by agriculture scientific and technical personnel haven’t been approved. Agriculture information resources, especially the constructions of database and web site have begun to take shape, but the utilization is still aimless. It is hard for traditional media to meet the personal and professional needs of farmers. Although farmers’information association plays an active role, supports and specifications from government are still required. Both network and reality public information service has limited service effect. Non-governmental information service, mass media, interpersonal information exchange can be regarded as supplementary, but there are still mangy problems. Farmer-centered principle is always adhered when studying on agriculture information needs, agriculture information resources development, agriculture information dissemination and agriculture information services.. The ideas of rural-centered "top-down" mode and farmer-centered "bottom-up" mode should be combined in the construction of agricultural information service system in Northwest China, which is significant to improve agriculture information service effects fundamentally and greatly, and to meet information needs of farmers, therefore impelling the rural social development in northwest district.