In late March, as temperatures rise, the rice planting season begins in Huizhou, a city in southern China's Guangdong Province that lies along the Tropic of Cancer.
Bundles of rice seedlings are neatly stacked.
But in Xibu Village, Longmen County, no farmers with plows are in sight. Instead, a few young people tap on their phone screens. In the distance, a transplanter glides autonomously across the field, its rows perfectly straight. Overhead, a drone carrying a basket of green rice seedlings hovers steadily toward the center of the plot before gently dropping its load.
This is spring farming in 2026—where smart equipment, working both in the sky and on the ground, has become the farmer's most reliable "high-tech partner."
A transplanter equipped with a smart system operates autonomously.
A traditional transplanter, retrofitted with an intelligent steering wheel and a high-precision positioning system, can be upgraded in just 30 minutes. After 10 minutes of debugging, it's ready to work without a driver. Powered by China's BeiDou satellite network, the system controls the machine with centimeter-level accuracy. Farmers no longer need to steer—they sit on the vehicle, monitor the screen, and fill in a few missing seedlings at the end of each row.
Drones and agricultural machines move across the fields.
Agricultural drones are evolving, too. No longer limited to pesticide spraying, today's farming drones can sow seeds, spread fertilizer, and transport seedlings. Equipped with upgraded batteries and flight control systems, the latest generation can carry up to 150 kilograms per trip—offering longer endurance, faster charging, and significantly higher efficiency.
Rice seedlings planted by the autonomous transplanter are evenly spaced, allowing more room for optimal growth.
This year, Huizhou plans to cultivate 1.4866 million mu (approximately 99,100 hectares) during the spring season. As of March 17, over 20% of the planting had been completed, with rice transplanting expected to be finished by early April.
From the sky to the ground, from precision sowing to smart management, technology is redefining what spring farming looks like in this corner of southern China. The old saying "spring farming depends on the water buffalo" is giving way to a new one: spring farming depends on smart machines.
Reporter: Wu Tianyu
Photo: Wang Changhui
