Facebook for Farmers?
In this BBC report by Nick Mackie, we can see how it is actually mobile farming that has been growing across rural China. China Mobile’s Nongxintong – or farming information service – launched four years ago. The company is currently focusing on expanding its delivery in China’s west and south-west regions.
“Building the mobile network and covering most of the country’s administrative villages, we realised that there was only a network signal. In rural areas, this is not enough,” explains Liu Jing, a local manager for the service at China Mobile.
Nongxintong has been created by China Mobile to deliver news and information directly to farmers via their mobile phones – the device is key since most farming households do not have Internet access.
Meanwhile, in two other Chinese counties, a social networking site is linking donors as far afield as London and California with farmers who seek micro-finance to develop small rural businesses. Enter the web platform, Wokai, which means “I start”.
“You have the second largest micro-credit demand in the world and almost no supply of micro-credit,” says Casey Wilson, CEO and co-founder of Wokai.
Registered micro-finance partners administer the loans locally – and earn from the interest. Wokai doesn’t take a penny from the money pledged, relying instead on donations and sponsorship to cover its running costs.
