CHANGSHA: China’s first unmanned double-crop rice farm was put into operation in Xinyang village in Changsha’s Wangcheng district, Hunan province, China Daily reported on Tuesday.
It is the province’s first unmanned farm that can achieve automatic operation of agricultural machinery in the process of production from spring sowing to harvest. Construction of the farm, with its 2,670 hectares of rice, began in December, and about 29 hectares have been put into use at the first stage to plant hybrid rice developed by plant geneticist Yuan Longping. The unmanned farm is part of a new generation of information technologies, including the internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence, 5G and robots. Via remote control mobile app, machinery and intelligent robots can be operated, and farmers can complete all the production and management tasks related to the farm without going there.
“In the past, for instance, it took around 20 workers to plant 10 hectares of rice, but now three workers are enough,” said Xiao Ding, head of an agricultural machinery cooperative. “The unmanned operation reduces labor costs by more than 70 percent and increase output by more than 10 percent, improving the level of agricultural modernization and comprehensive benefits for farmers.”
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
