National First Agricultural "Data Easy Loan" Lands: Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank Empowers Smart Agriculture with Data Asset Credit Enhancement

Recently, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank launched the country’s first “Digital Easy Loan” in the smart agriculture sector, providing 5 million yuan in credit funds to Jiqing Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jiqing Technology”). This transaction uses data assets as a financing collateral, precisely addressing the “light assets and financing difficulties” faced by agricultural technology companies. It also implements the 2026 national “Data Element Value Release Year” initiative and promotes digital finance to empower the real economy through innovative practices.

In recent years, under the national strategy of market-oriented allocation of data elements, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank has kept pace with the development of regional digital economy and actively explored financial service innovations. Following the 2024 launch of a data asset financing service plan in cooperation with the Shanghai Data Exchange, which provides comprehensive financial services to data element enterprises registered on the exchange, the bank has leveraged its solid experience in serving agriculture and rural areas to extend the data asset financing model into modern agriculture, taking the lead in pilot projects.

Located in Jinshan District, Jiqing Technology is a national high-tech enterprise and specialized, innovative enterprise focusing on smart agriculture technology research and system integration. Its self-developed greenhouse environment precise control technology can increase productivity by more than three times compared to traditional greenhouses. However, the current situation of “having technology but lacking assets” makes it difficult for the company to match the necessary funds for R&D iterations through traditional financing models.

After learning of Jiqing Technology’s financing needs, under the coordination of the Jinshan District government, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank Jinshan Branch responded quickly. Relying on the core value of the company’s smart agriculture data assets and technological R&D, the bank followed through on key steps such as rights confirmation, registration, and evaluation, ensuring efficient implementation of the project.

The core data assets used for financing collateral include vegetable greenhouse environment monitoring data and crop growth control parameters collected via sensors and analyzed through algorithms—key data in smart agriculture. After processing and integration, these data can precisely optimize agricultural production facility management, address technical pain points of traditional greenhouse cultivation, and possess significant economic value and industry empowerment potential. Focusing on key evaluation factors and control points of agricultural data assets, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank has collaborated with the Shanghai Data Exchange to conduct specialized research, promoting accurate and efficient assessment of agricultural data assets.

This nationwide first “Digital Easy Loan” in the agricultural sector is a significant achievement resulting from the collaboration among government, banks, enterprises, and the data exchange. It not only validates the feasibility of the data asset collateral model in modern agriculture but also provides valuable exploration for extending data element financialization across the entire agricultural industry chain. Furthermore, it further unblocks the value chain of “data turning into assets, assets into capital, and capital promoting development,” facilitating diversified growth of collateral assets.

Moving forward, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank will take this as an opportunity to systematically summarize practical experience in data asset collateral in agriculture, deepen cooperation mechanisms with government departments and the data exchange, improve data collateral risk control systems and service processes, and promote the broader and deeper release of data element value. This will support the deep integration of Shanghai’s digital finance with the real economy.