China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Financial Regulatory Administration, Ministry of Public Security and State Administration for Market Regulation issued a joint risk warning on the “cloud farming economy”, flagging a rise in illegal and criminal activity where agricultural planting, breeding and product sales are repackaged as investment and financing schemes marketed online. The alert highlights three common features: promoters use “agriculture + technology” themes to hype “pastoral life”, organic ecology or smart agriculture, including fabricated or manipulated images and videos, while claiming low risk and high returns that underlying operations cannot sustain. Platforms are typically app-based, use online payment tools to receive and transfer funds, and can spread risks quickly across a wide reach, complicating fund oversight and tracing. The notice also warns of multiple illegality risks, including using “profit-sharing” from planting/breeding or returns of agricultural specialty products as inducements, and in some cases incentivising participants to recruit others to expand a funding pool, with suspected illegal fundraising and pyramid-selling characteristics. The agencies urge the public to avoid high-rebate promises, hype-driven promotions and “acquaintance” referrals, and call on agricultural operators to conduct business lawfully, not exceed permitted scope or engage in financial activities, and not cooperate with “cloud farming” platforms. Suspected illegal or criminal leads are encouraged to be reported to relevant authorities.

Original source View in tracker