Using Digital Technology to Help the Comprehensive Revitalization of the Countryside

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “After the victory in poverty alleviation, we must comprehensively advance rural revitalization; this is a historic shift in the focus of work on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.” [1]1 “三农” (sān nóng) is a standard abbreviation for agriculture (农业), rural areas (农村), and farmers (农民). The 14th Five-Year Plan and the Long-Range Objectives for 2035 make the important deployment of “accelerating the construction of digital villages.” We must firmly grasp the new opportunities presented by the innovation and development of digital technology, promote the deep integration of digital technology with agricultural development, rural governance, and farmers’ lives, and provide a strong scientific and technological guarantee for accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

习近平总书记指出：“脱贫攻坚取得胜利后，要全面推进乡村振兴，这是‘三农’工作重心的历史性转移。”“十四五”规划和2035年远景目标纲要作出“加快推进数字乡村建设”的重要部署。我们要牢牢把握数字技术创新发展新机遇，推动数字技术同农业发展、农村治理和农民生活深度融合，为加快农业农村现代化提供坚强科技保障。

Helping to develop modern agriculture. The comprehensive revitalization of the countryside cannot be separated from industrial revitalization, nor from agricultural modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “The key to agricultural modernization is the modernization of agricultural science and technology.” Embedding digital technology throughout all stages of crop cultivation, planting, management, and harvesting, and promoting the digital transformation of agricultural production, operation, management, and services, brings not only innovation in agricultural technology and an increase in agricultural productive forces, but also profound changes in agricultural business models. For example, using Beidou positioning and artificial intelligence to scientifically manage crops can improve management efficiency; with the help of QR code technology, full traceability of agricultural products from field to table can be achieved; “Internet + agricultural products” can promote the sale of agricultural products. To comprehensively revitalize the countryside, we must develop digital agriculture on the basis of respecting the laws of agricultural production, promote reform and innovation in agricultural production decision-making, process management, product quality control, business systems, financial support, and consumer services, comprehensively raise the level of intelligent production, networked operation, efficient management, and convenient service, lead and drive agricultural modernization with digitalization, and continuously improve the quality, efficiency, and competitiveness of agriculture.

助力发展现代农业。全面推进乡村振兴，离不开产业振兴，离不开农业现代化。习近平总书记指出：“农业现代化，关键是农业科技现代化。”把数字技术贯穿农作物耕、种、管、收等各环节，推动农业生产经营、管理服务数字化改造，带来的不仅是农业技术的革新和农业生产力的提高，更是农业经营模式的深刻变化。比如，运用北斗定位、人工智能科学管理农作物，可以提高管理效率；借助二维码技术，可实现农产品从田间到餐桌的全程可追溯；“互联网+农产品”可以促进农产品销售。全面推进乡村振兴，要在尊重农业生产规律基础上发展数字农业，促进农业在生产决策、过程管理、产品质控、经营体系、金融支持、消费服务等领域改革创新，全面提升农业生产智能化、经营网络化、管理高效化、服务便捷化水平，以数字化引领驱动农业现代化，不断提高农业质量效益和竞争力。

Raising the level of rural governance. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “We must make good use of modern information technology, innovate rural governance methods, and raise the level of good governance in the countryside.” Strengthening rural governance is an important guarantee for comprehensively revitalizing the countryside. We must improve the rural governance system led by Party organizations, promote grid-based management and services, and achieve precision and refinement. Digital technology has the advantages of accuracy, precision, and refinement; it can adapt to new situations such as the acceleration of rural population mobility and the refinement of rural governance units, and enhance the scientific nature and timeliness of rural governance. By aggregating and integrating data from different fields, digital technology can also bring more entities into orderly participation in rural governance, helping to build, govern, and share the countryside together. For example, by making grassroots Party affairs, government affairs, and village affairs public on WeChat public accounts, villagers can learn about them in a timely manner through their mobile phones; for the promotion of policies benefiting farmers and the evaluation of good deeds and good people, villagers can participate in study and voting through WeChat groups. To comprehensively revitalize the countryside, we need to give full play to the supporting role of digital technology, use the digitalization of rural governance to drive the socialization, law-based governance, intelligentization, and professionalization of rural governance, and help build a well-governed countryside full of vitality, harmony, and order.

提升农村治理水平。习近平总书记指出：“要用好现代信息技术，创新乡村治理方式，提高乡村善治水平。”加强乡村治理是全面推进乡村振兴的重要保障。要完善党组织领导的乡村治理体系，推行网格化管理和服务，做到精准化、精细化。数字技术具有精确、精准、精细的优势，能够适应乡村人员流动加快、乡村治理单元细化等新情况，提升乡村治理科学性、时效性。通过将不同领域数据聚集融合，数字技术还能吸纳更多主体有序参与乡村治理，助力乡村共建共治共享。比如，在微信公众号公开基层党务、政务、村务信息，村民通过手机就可以及时了解；惠农政策宣传、好人好事评比，村民在微信群里就能参加学习、参与投票。全面推进乡村振兴，需要发挥好数字技术的支撑作用，以乡村治理数字化驱动乡村治理社会化、法治化、智能化、专业化，助力建设充满活力、和谐有序的善治乡村。

Improving the quality of life for farmers. Continuously improving the quality of life for farmers is an inherent requirement of comprehensively revitalizing the countryside. Increasing the supply of rural public services and raising the level of rural public services such as medical and health care, public education, and social security are important paths to improving the quality of life for farmers. Digital technology has rich application scenarios for public services and can effectively increase the quantity, quality, coverage, and accessibility of rural public service supply, making farmers’ lives more convenient. At present, online service models such as “at most one visit” and “approval without meeting” [2]2 “最多跑一次” (at most one visit) and “不见面审批” (approval without meeting) are administrative reform slogans aimed at streamlining government services so that citizens need to visit government offices only once, or not at all, to complete procedures. are being promoted in many villages; handling matters online, handling matters immediately, handling matters with fewer visits and faster processing, have greatly improved the convenience for farmers to handle affairs. To comprehensively revitalize the countryside, we need to rely on digital technology to improve the basic rural public service system, strengthen the construction of rural information infrastructure, expand the coverage of rural fiber optic networks, mobile communication networks, and digital television, ensure and promote the extension and coverage of “Internet + public services” to rural areas, promote the online handling of suitable agriculture-related matters, so that rural public services reach every family and every farmer through the cloud, truly allowing farmers to “run fewer errands” and data to “run more roads,” enabling them to experience the convenience and benefits brought by digital technology from tangible improvements in quality of life, and continuously enhance their sense of gain, happiness, and security.

改善农民生活质量。不断改善农民生活质量，是全面推进乡村振兴的题中应有之义。增加农村公共服务供给，提升农村医疗卫生、公共教育、社会保障等公共服务水平，是改善农民生活质量的重要路径。数字技术具有丰富的公共服务应用场景，能够有效提升农村公共服务供给的数量、质量、覆盖面和可及性，使农民生活更加便利。目前，“最多跑一次”“不见面审批”等在线服务模式在许多乡村推广，网上办、马上办、少跑快办，大幅提高了农民办事的便捷程度。全面推进乡村振兴，需要依托数字技术完善农村基本公共服务体系，加强农村信息基础设施建设，扩大农村光纤网络、移动通信网络、数字电视等的覆盖面，保障和推动“互联网+公共服务”向农村延伸覆盖，推进合适的涉农事项在线办理，使农村公共服务通过云端走向每个家庭、每个农民，真正让农民“少跑腿”、让数据“多跑路”，从实实在在的生活质量改善中体会数字技术带来的便捷与实惠，不断增强获得感、幸福感、安全感。

(The author is a professor at the School of Marxism, Nanchang Institute of Technology)

（作者为南昌工程学院马克思主义学院教授）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心