On March 11, Guangdong held an on-site gathering for the spring sloughing in the Zhongtang Base of Conghua Simiao Rice Industrial Park. The event, attended by policymakers and farmers from across the province, aimed to call for all-out efforts in preparing for the spring sowing and planting, while showcasing the most advanced technologies in the agricultural sector.
According to the provincial department of agriculture and rural affairs, the province's estimated intended area for spring sowing in 2024 is 20,240 square kilometers, including more than 8,666 square kilometers of early season rice.
The event featured demonstrations of modern farming techniques and equipment, including unmanned rice transplanters, plant protection drones, and unmanned rotary plows. These technologies are expected to improve crop yields and enhance the overall efficiency of agricultural operations.
(Photo: Agricultural drones are seeding.)
"Our P150 agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can do jobs like pesticide spraying, fertilizer application, and seed sowing. Compared to traditional manual operation, it's about 100 times more efficient. For a land of 4,000 square meters here, the vehicle can perform a fully autonomous operation in two or three minutes," introduced Huang Xinshuai, Public Relations Manager of XAG, a leading agricultural technology company from Guangdong.
Huang furthered that their agricultural UAVs have been deployed in Guangdong's rice production areas, litchi orchards and citrus orchards.
(Photo: Automatic seedling transplanter.)
"Our rice production is fully mechanized. 100 people may not be able to do as much work in a day as a rice transplanter does. Mechanization also helps greatly increase production by more than 50%," said Tan Zengwei, Technical Director of Guangzhou Hedaofeng Agricultural Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd.
Tan stated that their company also provided technical services for a huge number of farmers, helping them increase production efficiency.
(Photo: Unmanned farm.)
An unmanned farm developed by the South China Agricultural University also caught people's attention at the event. The farm, constructed by the team of academician Luo Xiwen, has realized five unmanned operations including production and harvesting, hangar transfer during the fields, automatic obstacle avoidance and emergency parking, real-time monitoring of the crop production, and intelligent decision-making and precise operation. At present, the practice has promoted to 13 provinces in China.
"For example, our unmanned paddy weeder is equipped with seven inter-row weeding wheels and a series of inter-plant weeding wheels. The machine's seedling injury rate and weed control rate are comparable to some advanced models in Japan, which is less than 3%," explained by Chen Hao, a graduate student from the South China Agricultural University and a team member of the unmanned farm.
Small mobile rice drying equipment are also displayed on the scene, which can be used for emergency services, especially during rainy weather.
According to statistics, the province is expected to invest in 586,000 sets of agricultural machinery of various types, with nearly 40,000 sets currently used for disaster prevention, mitigation and relief.
Reporter | Abby
Video | Wingheng
Editor | Xie Miaofeng, Olivia, Nan, Ou Xiaoming, James
Photos provided to GDToday
