Agricultural "New Technologies + New Equipment" outline a vibrant "Spring Farming Technology Map," transforming traditional farming scenes into smart agriculture sites.

Originally from: CCTV.com

CCTV News: During the “Qingming” season, the wheat grows through three stages. Since early this spring, regions across the country have been advancing and implementing subsidy policies to promote strong seedlings and key technical measures. In the main producing areas, wheat seedling conditions and growth progress are basically on par with normal years. The latest agricultural situation dispatch from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs shows that at present, in the Huanghuai and Northwest regions, winter wheat is pulling out the flag leaf and entering the booting stage, moving into a key period for yield formation. In the key period of water and fertilizer management, how can irrigation be made more precise and scientific? Localities have been trying new approaches. In the farmlands of Renze District in Xingtai City, Hebei Province, modern intelligent sprinkler irrigation equipment rotates flexibly. Water flows are evenly sprayed onto the fields, achieving full coverage of the irrigated area and easing the workload for farmers.

This year, Shandong is expected to推广 water-fertilizer integration across about 3 million mu. In a manufacturing enterprise in Wucheng County, technicians are currently performing pre-factory testing and commissioning on a batch of intelligent water-fertilizer devices that are about to be put into spring field management. Today, this intelligent water-fertilizer equipment has already been deployed in the fields. Farmers don’t need to camp out at the field edge like in previous years; instead, they can deliver a tailored “nutrient meal” to wheat seedlings through remote operation. “One mu only needs 20 cubic meters of water. It not only reduces water use by 70%, but also enables precise fertilization according to the different growth stages of the crop.” Currelying Kui, an administrator of the Quzhuang Village Land Share Professional Cooperative in Wucheng County, told reporters. During the spring farming season, financial services also provide strong support for farmers. This year, Jinchang, Gansu, has opened a green credit channel for spring farming. The Postal Savings Bank has disbursed RMB 420 million in spring farming and pre-sowing loans, benefiting more than 1,500 farmers. This helps them rent and purchase new types of agricultural machinery in advance, and also ensures that agricultural inputs are delivered on time. Gao Yanrong, deputy general manager of the Retail Finance Department of the Jinchang Sub-branch of the Postal Savings Bank, said that financial services conduct precise assessments of farmers’ funding needs for spring farming and pre-sowing. Relying on special products such as “Nongmu Loan” and “Industry Loan,” financial services are extended to the front line of production. With more than a month left before the harvest of winter wheat in the main producing areas, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will guide localities to implement measures such as scientific irrigation and “one spray for three preventions,” working with full effort to win the first battle of annual grain production.

Over 80% of early rice seedling raising, and 20% of sowing and transplanting completed
This year, China’s intended area for spring-sown grain shows a slight increase, while agricultural inputs supply remains basically sufficient, and spring farming and pre-sowing are progressing in an orderly manner. At present, over 80% of early rice seedling raising has been completed, and over 20% of sowing and transplanting has been done, with progress matching the year-on-year level. In the farmlands of Huangzhou Town, Anyi County, Jiangxi Province, three unmanned aerial vehicles evenly broadcast early rice seeds according to preset flight paths. Pilots locate the work plots using BeiDou navigation and automatically generate flight routes, achieving centimeter-level sowing accuracy for precise and efficient sowing. In Chiyang County, Hunan, this year, for the first time, intelligent rice transplanters for simultaneous side-deep fertilization have been promoted on a large scale. Based on national and provincial subsidies for purchasing agricultural machinery, localities provide an additional cumulative subsidy of RMB 10k per unit, bringing the total subsidy ratio to over 40%. Since the beginning of this year, it has driven farmers to purchase more than 200 units of this type of machinery. These machines are equipped with a soil-depth sensing system, which can sense the softness and hardness of the soil layer in real time, automatically adjust planting depth, and keep the error within 1 centimeter—especially suitable for the characteristics of southern paddy fields, where the soil layer is complex and uneven in height and texture.

As spring farming enters its peak period, taking advantage of sunny weather, on April 5 at Yaojiagang Comprehensive Wharf in Zhijiang City, Hubei Province, about 1,500 tons of fertilizer departed from here, bound for places including Jiujiang, Jiangxi, and Wuxi, Jiangsu, to fully ensure fertilizer for spring farming. Qu Dan, director of the Port Affairs Center of Ninggang Logistics Co., Ltd. of Zhijiang City, Hubei Province, said: “We can choose the most economical and fastest routes flexibly based on different needs in different places to deliver fertilizer to the fields, without delaying the farming calendar.” It is understood that in response to the persistent cloudy and rainy weather in the south, Zhijiang local authorities have also adopted a “one box to the end” multi-modal transport solution, effectively avoiding fertilizer getting wet or caking, and working to ensure stable fertilizer effectiveness. Since the beginning of this year, they have completed container transport of 4,700 units and transported about 130k tons of fertilizer in total.

The main force of spring farming: a roundup of smart agricultural machinery
In spring farming season, across the vast fields, a team of “smart iron oxen” agricultural machinery is roaring into action. They turn the traditional agricultural scenery into a smart agricultural scene full of technology. Experts say that during spring farming, the machinery commonly used mainly falls into two categories: tillage and land preparation equipment for plowing and leveling, and sowing and rice-transplanting equipment. Among them, the tractor is the “power vehicle head,” responsible for attaching different implements. Now, it has also achieved unmanned driving. An unmanned tractor equipped with high-precision navigation and positioning systems controls driving error within 2.5 centimeters, and can even make autonomous decisions.

The intelligent seed planter can monitor seeding quantity, uniformity, and seeding depth in real time to ensure accurate location. Meanwhile, the unmanned rice transplanter uses BeiDou navigation to solve the challenge that traditional rice transplanters can’t keep the rows straight after turning. That makes the seedlings’ rows straight. Operators can easily schedule and dispatch tasks through a mobile phone or tablet. On the screen, data such as operation trajectories, fertilizer application amounts, and seedling emergence rates update in real time, making farming a “precision job.”

Source: CCTV.com

Editor: Zhang Yunfan