AS autumn winds ripple through fields of fragrant rice at a Beidahuang farm in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, grower Wei Guodong rubs a freshly plucked panicle between his palms, revealing plump, gleaming grains.
“This year’s harvest looks solid,” he says with a smile.
The farm belongs to Heilongjiang Agriculture Company Limited, the A-share-listed arm of Beidahuang Group, a major state-owned agribusiness in the province.
Wei’s confidence had been boosted months earlier, during the seedling stage, when the greenhouses at the farm underwent a full-chain smart upgrade that is now reshaping rice production in one of China’s major grain-producing regions.
Liu Dong, a manager at the 852 Farm branch, said the company invested this year to retrofit its seedling greenhouses with sensors, automated film rollers, smart irrigation valves and panoramic cameras. The system monitors soil pH, temperature, humidity and light around the clock, allowing a single skilled technician to manage up to three greenhouses and cutting labour costs by about 60 per cent.
That same data-driven approach runs through the summer growing season, when crops are most vulnerable to weeds, pests and weather. At the farm, an AI laser-weeding robot uses industrial cameras to distinguish crops from weeds in milliseconds. With millimeter-level positioning and a weed-removal rate above 95 per cent, the machine can cover 80 to 100 mu (about 5.3 to 6.7 hectares) a day, easing labor shortages while reducing herbicide use. — Xinhua
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