Garlic reveals root of farmers' woes

BECAUSE OF A GARLIC GLUT, farmers in Ninglang and Yongsheng, two poverty-stricken counties in Southwest China's Yunnan province, complained they had 5,000 tons of garlic they were unable to sell. On hearing the news, some e-commerce companies took the initiative to help the farmers sell their garlic online. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

This year, because of the enlargement of the planting scale, there was a large surfeit of garlic production, with the price dropping from 5 yuan ($0.79) to 0.7 yuan per kilogram. The involvement of the e-commerce companies meets the farmers' needs. For instance, JD.com sold 120 tons of garlic in the first 24 hours, which has helped the farmers to minimize their losses.

Hopefully, the e-commerce companies can take the opportunity to expand their operations and market in the less-developed inland areas, and so connect consumers directly with farmers via the internet. However, the internet will not be a panacea for all the woes of farmers.