Hanyuan County in Ya'an City, Sichuan, was recognized as an old revolutionary base area in 2010 by Sichuan provincial government. Most revolutionary base areas are scattered among mountainous areas with inconvenient transportation, lagging behind in economic and social development over the past decades.
As nearly 90 percent of Hanyuan's population engages in agriculture, the county government has decided to take agriculture development as their key work. The county now has cherry bases, apple bases, Sichuan pepper bases and other vegetable bases, covering 44,000 hectares.
The one fatal disadvantage of relying on agricultural products is that farmers will lose big when there are few distribution channels and agricultural products go rotten in the field.
Previously, farmers had no other way but to wait for wholesalers to come and purchase their goods or go to a nearby market to sell. As e-commerce booms in China, local people and government see opportunities.
This past spring, he sold 15 tons of cherries online and 10 tons offline in 20 days. Fifty farmers in the cooperative with him earn 20% more on average, year-on-year. All cherries in their orchards are sold.
According to farmer Jiang Li, her cherries sell at 80 yuan (about $12) per kilogram online, while they only sell for 50 yuan per kilogram wholesale.
By Jiang Wei (China Daily)