Agricultural
machineries are playing an increasingly significant role in China’s
grain production, as more and more “powerful weapons” such as automated
seedling cultivation machines, transplanters, agricultural drones and
combined harvesters are playing their part in farming activities. The rate of mechanization in the plowing, sowing and harvesting of major crops throughout the country is now over 70 percent. New
technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Beidou navigation and
big data are being applied in the agriculture sector, driving the
development of China’s smart agriculture and bringing benefits to
farmers. Gao Yifeng, a
member of the agricultural cooperative in Beishao village of Dingzhou
city in north China’s Hebei province, was seen checking the growth of
corns on his farmland with his mobile phone during his break from
working on a production line making dried noodles. “Villagers are
now using mobile phones to grow crops. Thanks to the agricultural IoT,
we secured a bumper harvest this year,” Gao said, adding that they can
log into a website with their phones to monitor 12 types of real-time
data such as the light, temperature and humidity of their farmlands. In the past,
villagers had to spend half a day to check the growth of crops in the
farmlands, Gao said, noting that locals now can do the same thing at
home through the video monitoring function on an information platform on
their phones. The village
began to apply the agricultural IoT last year. “Various kinds of sensors
were installed in the farmlands to collect information and transmit
data to the platform. After a comprehensive analysis, this data will
assist farmers in their farming activities,” said Wu Yongshan, an
agricultural technician at the bureau of agriculture and rural affairs
of Dingzhou. “Some farmers
sought excessive irrigation in the past for convenience. Now we do not
need to irrigate too much at a time, and we can replenish water and
fertilizer at any time according to the monitoring results, which saves
labor and water and increases the crop yield,” Gao said. In the first
half of this year, when monitoring data showed that the moisture content
of soil in Gao’s farmlands was too low, the information platform
immediately issued an early warning to him. After receiving the
information on his mobile phone, Gao promptly supplied water to his
triticale, ensuring the normal growth of the crop. “The IoT not
only collects real-time data but also saves data. For example, consumers
can track the quality of raw materials of dried noodles and triticale
flour produced by the agricultural cooperative in Beishao village by
scanning QR codes on the packages,” Wu said, adding that the
agricultural IoT technology further ensures food safety. At present,
the village has piloted automatic irrigation, which can be controlled on
a mobile phone according to the IoT-based information tips, in about
0.67 hectares of farmlands. The village planted about 66.7 hectares of
corn this year. “Although
cooperative members still need to enter the pump room and press the
buttons to irrigate most of the arable land in our village, we will
expand trials to more farmlands,” said Wu Kaixun, Party head of the
village. In Sihong
county, east China’s Jiangsu province, automated seedling cultivation
machines are applied to reduce labor intensity for farmers and to
improve the quality and efficiency of the cultivation of rice seedlings.
The machines can also reduce the cost of per mu (0.07 hectares) by 60
to 100 yuan. In Huaxian
county, central China’s Henan province, with the ability to save more
than 90 percent of water and over 30 percent of pesticide, drones are
being used to spray pesticide in farmlands to reduce cost and improve
efficiency. This year, the county has sprayed pesticide in all of its
6,667 hectares of high-standard farmlands. In Guoyang
county, east China’s Anhui province, tractors equipped with self-driving
technology based on the Beidou navigation system are used to improve
the efficiency of farming. The system can also be applied to drones,
harvesters and other agricultural machineries, improving the grain
output by 5 percent and reducing fuel consumption by about 10 percent. Machineries
have greatly reduced labor intensity and improved the efficiency of
grain production, which saves in costs and helps farmers across China
grow crops in a more relaxed and scientific manner.
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