In Wuchang, 25,000 farmers have installed the Smart Agriculture APP on their mobile phones, so they can communicate with agricultural experts anytime.
China’s Northeast city Harbin contributes one-fifth to Heilongjiang’s total rice production. The black soil in the region is suitable for rice planting. In recent years, Harbin has applied advanced digital technologies in agricultural production.
Focusing on rice production as the leading industry, Wuchang in Harbin has built a high-quality national modern agricultural park and launched a number of smart agriculture projects.
Wuchang has been world-renowned for its agricultural products including ‘Wuchang Rice’. The application of agricultural helicopters and UAVs has greatly improved work efficiency. All data about the paddies such as water level, oxygen content and water temperature have been monitored all weather in the AI monitor room in the Agricultural IoT Service Centre of Wuchang.
In Wuchang 25,000 farmers have installed the Smart Agriculture; APP on their mobile phones, so that they can communicate with agricultural experts anytime. The centre also has a rice traceability system, social service system, agricultural product electronic information system and government resource system, which are linked with another two platforms of Big Data and Expert Cloud, so as to ensure that consumers can buy authentic Wuchang rice. The Big Data 4.0 Platform developed by the centre also provides farmers with precise data on the price trends and marketing of various crops.
In recent years, Harbin has significantly improved its agricultural production automation, precision and intelligence, and realised more efficient management. While labours are reduced, the utilisation rate of water resources, fertilizers and pesticides has significantly increased. With the accelerated transformation of agricultural development mode, a number of replicable and promotable integrated application models of digital agricultural technology have emerged to boost agricultural modernisation.
Harbin has seen a bumper harvest of grain for 19 consecutive years. The comprehensive mechanisation rate of planting and harvesting major crops has reached 98.3 per cent, with a stable grain output of more than 12 billion kg. In addition, agricultural product processing is also developing at a faster pace. The per capita disposable income of rural residents achieved a two-fold increase. The sustainable and high-quality development of modern agriculture has laid the solid foundation for Harbin to build a ‘City of Modern Agriculture’.