Study on the Demands for Agricultural and Rural Informationization in China and Its Strategic Options

China is at a critical stage of transformation from traditional to modern agriculture and its agriculture and rural economic sector faces severe challenges of shortage of natural resources, environmental degradation, agricultural disasters, sluggish income growth of farmers and widening disparity between urban and rural areas. The fundamental solution to these problems lies with the advancement of agricultural science and technology. China’s agricultural and rural informationization has entered the comprehensive development stage, in which informationization is no longer a pure technical but complex systematic matter, involving natural, technological, economic and social issues, with impact on the country’s food security, environmental protection and sustainable development. Based on analysis of agricultural and rural economic development, this paper thoroughly examines the demand for information technology in the drive of new socialist countryside construction and modern agriculture development and tables strategic options for agricultural and rural informationization in China.