BEIJING: Despite recent persistent rains in central China’s Henan Province, Shen Jifeng’s 600 mu (about 40 hectares) of reclaimed farmland in Xinxiang City has largely avoided waterlogging.
Equipped with water pumps, sprinklers and smart sensors, these farmlands in Xinxiang’s Pingyuan Pilot Zone are part of a “high-standard farmland” supported by modern infrastructure and advanced technologies.
“The land has been leveled and drainage ditches have been added along the edges to allow water to drain quickly from the fields,” Shen said.
“Highly standardized agricultural land” was written into the resolution adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in July.
According to this resolution on further comprehensive deepening of reform to accelerate China’s modernization of the country, as one of the specific measures, the deepening of land system reform will improve mechanisms for the development, verification, management and protection of high-quality agricultural land.
High-quality farmland, also called well-facilitated farmland, requires science and technology support for disaster prevention and control, soil quality and fertility improvement, and information technology-based farmland management.
The CPC and the Chinese government have emphasized the importance of high-quality arable land in important meetings and documents, including the government work report presented during the second session of the 14th National People’s Congress in March this year.
According to the 10-year development plan released in 2021, China will build 1.2 billion mu of high-standard arable land and renovate and upgrade 280 million mu of existing high-standard farmland by 2030.
Until then, the country aims to achieve stable grain production of over 600 billion kilograms per year, which will ensure basic self-sufficiency in grain and security of supply of basic foodstuffs.
Quality agricultural land that is in line with modern agricultural production and management will significantly save water, energy, fertilizers and labor for farmers and increase yield.
In Shen’s case, more than 100 mu of his land is equipped with automatic irrigation systems that can be controlled from his smartphone.
This not only saves water but also allows liquid fertilizers to be mixed with water for field application, greatly reducing the need for manual labor, he said, adding that combined with improved crop varieties and other factors, wheat yield per mu in his field has increased by 100 to 150 kg.
Various sensors also played a vital role. In the Pingyuan pilot zone, more than 20 agricultural data towers equipped with solar panels, high-definition cameras, atmospheric sensors and soil sensors collect and transmit data. This information helps create detailed weather, soil and crop information through large model calculations for Shen and other farmers.
Other devices such as pest radars and mold spore collectors provide local farmers with pest and disease alerts.
The Pest Radar uses 32mm radar waves to track and predict the timing, location, swarm density and migration trajectory of flying insects within a 20km radius, offering precise guidance for pest prevention and control.
All these data and information are consolidated into “Zhongyuan Nonggu”, a science-tech innovation platform with four main big data models for weather, soil, fertility and plant transpiration.
“Agriculture is different from industry in that agricultural data is difficult to standardize. We are still training four large models with additional data. As the number of data poles increases, more data will be fed into these models,” explained Yin Yue, project manager. from Zhongyuan Nonggu.
Such practices are being implemented nationwide, marking the future of smart agriculture in China.
According to Chen Bangxun, a senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the country has completed the development of more than 1 billion mu of high-quality arable land by the end of 2023.
In Tumd Left Banner, Hohhot, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the local government has set up a maize planting demonstration zone with nearly 960 mu of high-quality arable land.
It features an integrated platform for intelligent control and remote video monitoring, enabling real-time supervision of the entire planting process and zone management.
Supported by IoT devices such as monitoring stations, sensors and control valves, the platform can collect data on crop growth, leaf surface condition and pest movement and provide farmers with fertilization and management recommendations.
Farmers can also monitor ambient temperature, humidity, soil pH and light intensity on their smartphones through special apps.
Liu Ruifei, head of the local agricultural technology support center, said the local government will continue to integrate modern technology and equipment into the demonstration zone and help farmers achieve green agricultural production.
According to Yu Qiangyi, a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP), under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, smart agriculture can increase the efficiency of agricultural operations, alleviate labor shortages, protect and improve the agricultural ecosystem, reduce production costs, improve production quality and move agriculture from an experience-based practice to a data-based practice.
“Smart agriculture uses sensor data and the Internet of Things as a critical factor in production, driving automation, unattended operations and intelligent management in agriculture,” said Yu, who is also the head of the smart agriculture research team at IARRP.
