With the wide application of modern information technology in the agricultural field, the agricultural intelligence revolution in the form of intelligent agriculture has arrived. Smart agriculture is an advanced stage in the development of agricultural informatization from digitization to networking and then to intelligence. It is a milestone for agricultural development and has become the trend of modern agricultural development in the world.
In recent years, with the strong support of the government, my country’s smart agriculture has developed rapidly. Under the guidance of policies and the trend of large-scale operation, the R&D and application of smart agricultural technologies such as commonly used environmental agricultural sensors, agricultural remote sensing technology, agricultural drones, agricultural machinery Beidou navigation, agricultural big data and intelligent algorithms have made great progress, and some products have basically achieved domestic production. substitute. However, we should also be soberly aware that my country’s smart agriculture still lacks basic research and technology accumulation, and the overall technological level is 15 to 20 years behind developed countries.
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The following factors have affected the rapid development of my country’s smart agriculture to some extent:
● First, the scale of farmland in my country is small, and the problem of farmland fragmentation is prominent. The average farm size in the United States is more than 200 hectares, 82% of EU countries have farms with an area of more than 20 hectares, and 52% have farms with an area of 100 hectares. However, my country’s farmland is small and highly fragmented. Small farmers with an operating area of less than 3.4 hectares account for more than 95%, and their cultivated land area accounts for more than 80% of my country’s total cultivated land area. The agricultural production and management methods of small farmers and small plots lead to low marginal benefits of my country’s smart agricultural technology investment, and the enthusiasm of agricultural management entities to apply it is not high.
● Second, the level of agricultural mechanization in my country is relatively low. The implementation of smart agriculture is inseparable from the support of agricultural machinery and equipment. In recent years, my country has stepped up its efforts to support and promote full-scale and comprehensive mechanization, and has achieved gratifying results. By the end of 2020, the comprehensive mechanization rate of major grain crops in my country will reach 71%, the comprehensive mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvesting in hilly and mountainous areas will be 49%, the comprehensive mechanization rate of protected gardening will be 32%, the mechanization rate of livestock breeding will be 35%, and the mechanization rate of aquaculture will be 30%. %. However, due to factors such as the diversification of demand for agricultural machinery products and the complex operating environment of machinery and tools, my country’s current level of agricultural mechanization and intelligentization of agricultural machinery equipment still lags behind developed countries by 10 to 20 percentage points.
● Third, the rural infrastructure is weak. Although the rural broadband network has covered the villages, the proportion of rural households and agricultural parks is low; 4G network signal instability, few 5G base stations, and high communication costs limit the development of agricultural informatization; rural information collection terminals have few applications, The infrastructure of the Internet of Things is weak, and there are few monitoring points such as farmland meteorology, cultivated land quality, soil moisture, and hydrology; the lack of professional information equipment operation and maintenance teams makes it difficult and costly for agricultural production and operation entities to obtain information.
● Fourth, the effective supply of smart agricultural technology is insufficient. Due to weak basic research, insufficient innovation in information-aware agricultural sensors, intelligent decision-making model algorithms, and high-end agricultural intelligent equipment technology products cannot meet the needs of implementing smart agriculture. At the same time, there is also a lack of practical low-threshold technology for farmers and small plots in our country, and it is difficult to meet the needs of the vast number of small farmers in our country. In addition, due to the ecological diversity of agriculture, there are also diverse demands for technologies and application models. However, after investing a lot of money in R&D, they cannot replicate and promote them on a large scale like industrial technology products, which makes the R&D subjects of enterprises unwilling or unwilling to do so. Dare to invest.
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At present, my country’s smart agriculture is still in the initial stage of development. In order to promote its rapid development, measures should be taken in the following five aspects:
● One is to strengthen government support. Coordinate various resources, strengthen policy support, make breakthroughs in key core technologies, and achieve self-reliance and self-improvement. Implement a number of major smart agriculture projects around key agricultural areas and key industries, strengthen the research and application demonstration of key technologies for smart agriculture, sum up experience, and establish models and experiences that can be replicated and promoted.
● The second is to formulate relevant fund subsidy policies. In view of the social public welfare, ecological regionalization, highly dispersed and individualized characteristics of agriculture, it is recommended to give policy subsidies to the research and development and application of smart agricultural technology products, reduce or exempt enterprises with smart agriculture as their core business, and reduce or exempt Internet access in rural areas. and data transfer communication charges.
● The third is to strengthen the construction of technical standards and testing platforms. Relying on alliances, associations and other groups and organizations, quickly establish group standards for data, products, market access, etc., and actively promote the construction of national and industry standards. Establish a third-party product and technology testing platform recognized by the country and the industry.
● The fourth is to establish a data open sharing mechanism. Agricultural data is characterized by scattered and isolated islands. It is recommended that government departments strengthen the collection and integration of agricultural data, and open relevant data within a certain range according to procedures and establish a sharing mechanism. For foreign companies entering the domestic market, their products are required to provide data interface standards.
● Fifth, strengthen the construction of talent team. To cultivate interdisciplinary talents in agriculture and information, it is recommended that educational institutions set up courses related to smart agriculture in postgraduate courses in colleges and universities, and encourage talents in the information field to enter the agricultural field to carry out relevant scientific research and application promotion. Actively carry out technical training, and build a smart agricultural promotion team that understands technology and manages well.
Author: Zhao Chunjiang Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, director of the National Agricultural Information Engineering Technology Research Center
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Activity background
As early as 2022, the No. 1 Central Document pointed out that we should vigorously promote the construction of digital villages, promote the development of smart agriculture, and promote the integration and application of information technology and agricultural machinery and agronomy. The “14th Five-Year Plan” and the 2035 long-term goal outline propose to build smart agriculture and accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. An agricultural intelligence revolution in the form of intelligent agriculture has arrived. In this issue, relevant experts are invited to discuss the issue of smart agriculture.
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Deep integration of information technology and modern agriculture
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What are the salient features of smart agriculture that are different from traditional agriculture? Why should we attach great importance to smart agriculture?
Li Daoliang (Director of the National Digital Fishery Innovation Center of China Agricultural University): Smart agriculture is a new generation of information technology such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, spatial information technology, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, as well as modern agricultural planting and breeding techniques and agricultural product processing, The product of the deep integration of circulation, trading, and consumption industrial chains is the “ecological integration” and “genetic reorganization” of modern information technology and the entire industrial chain of agricultural production, operation, management, and service.
The main features of smart agriculture are as follows:
● First, the digitization, networking and onlineization of agricultural production factors. Utilize advanced sensing, remote sensing, and machine vision technologies to realize digital labeling and acquisition of agricultural planting and breeding environment information, growth information of planting or breeding objects, and working condition information of production machinery and equipment. Utilize network communication technologies such as the Internet, 5G, narrowband Internet of Things, and satellite communications to realize remote digital information dispatching.
● The second is the cloud computing and intelligentization of agricultural production process regulation and decision-making. Based on the massive data of the production process, make full use of big data and artificial intelligence technology, process the data with the help of the agricultural cloud computing platform, generate the optimal growth regulation model of agricultural animals and plants, and realize the intelligent regulation of the whole production process.
● The third is the coordination of the whole link, the whole process and the whole chain of agriculture. Through the agricultural cloud computing platform, the distributed agricultural production system, logistics system, transaction system and consumption system are connected into an organic whole, so that the various links and main work of agricultural production, operation, management and consumption can be coordinated and optimized.
● Fourth, credit and security of agricultural management. Through the blockchain decentralization technology, all the data of agricultural production, circulation, transaction, consumption and other links are uploaded and stored in the blockchain shared distributed database, forming an untamperable ledger that can be consulted by consumers and buyers, so that Credit and security of agricultural management.
The significance and role of developing smart agriculture are reflected in the following aspects:
● Promote resource conservation and high-efficiency utilization, and green development of agricultural science. Through the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, robots, intelligent equipment and other technologies and planting and breeding processes, planting and breeding production operations can get rid of the natural environment and human dependence, and build a system that integrates environmental physiological monitoring, crop model analysis and precise adjustment. The agricultural production automation system realizes the improvement of labor production efficiency, land output rate and resource utilization rate. Through digital measurement and control, while meeting the needs of crop growth, it can ensure resource conservation and avoid environmental pollution, so as to realize the green development of agriculture. At present, agricultural developed countries have realized that one person cultivates 5,000 mu of land, one person produces 500 tons of vegetables per year, one person breeds 1 million potted flowers, one person breeds 200,000 chickens and produces 180,000 eggs per day, and one person breeds 10,000 pigs , 200 cows, and 100 tons of fish, completely changing the problems faced by traditional agriculture such as extensive management, low competitiveness, and low resource utilization.
● Promote standardized agricultural production and ensure “green and safety on the tip of the tongue”. Real-time dynamic monitoring of the soil, atmospheric environment, and water environment through digital, networked, and intelligent equipment to make it meet the environmental standards of agricultural production; all production links can also be produced through intelligent equipment in accordance with certain technical and economic standards and normative requirements ; Real-time and accurate detection of the quality of agricultural products through digital and intelligent equipment to ensure that the final agricultural products meet the corresponding quality standards. With the help of technologies such as the Internet, QR codes, radio frequency tags, and blockchains, establish a traceable, interconnected and shared agricultural product quality and food safety information platform, improve the supervision system for the quality and safety of agricultural products from the farm to the dining table, and ensure that the people’s “tip of tongue” Green and Safety on the World”.
● Promote the integration and branding of agricultural management. The application of information technology has broken the time, space and geographical constraints of the agricultural market, and data such as agricultural material procurement and agricultural product circulation will be monitored and transmitted in real time, effectively solving the problem of information asymmetry. Use the e-commerce platform to expand the sales channels of agricultural products, build an integrated agricultural product management system through self-operated bases, self-built websites, and independent distribution methods, and promote market-oriented marketing and branding of agricultural products.
● Promote the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries. Agricultural digitalization, networking, and platformization guide the development and integration of new agricultural business entities such as large professional households, family farms, farmers’ professional cooperatives, and excellent enterprises, and promote the close connection of agricultural product production, circulation, processing, storage, transportation, sales, and service industries , realize the effective allocation of agricultural factor resources, and make the industry and factor agglomeration change from quantitative collection to qualitative change, so as to rebuild the entire agricultural industrial chain and realize the cross-penetration and integrated development of agriculture and secondary and tertiary industries.
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Smart management aims at system optimization
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Q
What is the development status of smart agriculture in developed countries? What experience does it have in the R&D and application of new smart agricultural technologies that my country can learn from?
He Yong (Director of Digital Agriculture and Rural Research Center of Zhejiang University): The United States is a typical modern agricultural country in the world. About 3.5 million people are directly engaged in agricultural production. It not only feeds 300 million Americans, but also becomes the world’s largest exporter of agricultural products. Comprehensive mechanization and rapid development of digital technology have laid a solid foundation for the development of smart agriculture. At present, the United States has formed a refined and large-scale smart agricultural production system. 69.6% of farms use sensors to collect data, and agricultural robots are applied to agricultural production such as sowing, spraying, and harvesting.
As the world’s largest agricultural drone spraying country, Japan mainly uses the agricultural Internet of Things as an information source, applies a large number of agricultural robots, and constantly pursues labor-saving and refined agricultural production to solve the problem of agricultural labor shortage.
The characteristics of smart agriculture in developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan are based on the development trend of modern agriculture, combined with the actual agricultural production in the country to carry out theoretical and practical research on smart agriculture, with the support of modern information technology, give full play to the role of smart agricultural equipment, apply the Internet of Things, Technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and 5G will consider crops-soil-environment-weather-equipment-personnel as an overall system, and realize intelligent management aiming at the overall optimization of the system.
Developed countries have the following experience in the development and application of smart agricultural technology, which is worth learning for our country.
● First, start from improving productivity and solve the bottleneck of agricultural production as the starting point. The Netherlands, Israel and other countries are seriously short of fresh water resources. They vigorously develop facility agriculture, implement soilless cultivation and fine sprinkler and drip irrigation systems. Japan’s agricultural labor force is aging and seriously insufficient. It vigorously develops agricultural drones and agricultural robots to greatly improve operating efficiency. South my country is also facing a shortage of labor and the availability of agricultural machinery in hilly and mountainous areas. Multifunctional small-scale operation equipment should be developed to realize machine substitution and solve the problem of mechanized operations in hilly and mountainous areas. The main grain producing areas should implement full mechanization to improve labor productivity. Economically developed areas can study the establishment of unmanned or few-person farms, orchards, pastures, fisheries, etc., to improve the level of agricultural modernization.
● Second, the implementation of standardized planning and operations is the basis and condition for the development of smart agriculture. The implementation of standardized planning and refined management of farmland, orchards and pastures in developed countries has created conditions for large-scale and efficient use of intelligent agricultural equipment, greatly improving operational efficiency, output and quality. my country’s farmland, orchards, and pastures need to promote standardized planning as soon as possible, formulate standardized operating specifications, and develop high-efficiency supporting operating equipment to create conditions for large-scale mechanized operations.
● Thirdly, make full use of modern science and technology, and insert the wings of science and technology into agriculture. Foreign countries have made extensive use of air-space-ground technology and meteorological data to achieve rapid and accurate acquisition of farmland information and intelligent management. With the development of the Internet of Things, big data and 5G technology, especially the application of high-resolution satellites and Beidou positioning system, it is expected to realize real-time dynamic acquisition of crops, animals and plants growth information, and control temperature, humidity, light, etc. according to crop growth needs. Dynamic regulation and precise spraying of fertilizer and water medicine.
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The development of smart agriculture in various places has seen real results
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What is the status quo of my country’s smart agriculture development? What are the successful experiences and innovative explorations of smart agriculture development in various places?
Kang Chunpeng (Associate Researcher of the Information Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs): my country’s agricultural and rural informatization development level is still in its infancy, but the agricultural industry is accelerating its transformation towards digitization, networking, and intelligence, and the consumer Internet continues to extend and expand to the industrial Internet. According to the monitoring of the Information Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the national agricultural production informatization level in 2020 will be 22.5%, of which 18.5% are field planting, 23.5% are facility cultivation, 30.2% are livestock and poultry farming, and 15.7% are aquaculture. In recent years, my country’s smart agriculture has gradually achieved results, and the level of intelligence and unmanned has gradually improved, showing the following highlights.
In recent years, my country’s smart agriculture has gradually achieved results, and the level of intelligence and unmanned has gradually improved, showing the following highlights.
● First, new products and new technologies are booming. Modern information technology is being widely used in various links and fields of agricultural production, and new products, new technologies, and new models are emerging one after another. The digital transformation of agriculture is accelerating, and the transformation of traditional agriculture into intelligence is accelerating. Intelligent identification systems for field crop moisture, seedling conditions, disease and pest conditions, and disaster monitoring, as well as intelligent robots for farming and harvesting, have been continuously developed. In particular, products such as automated harvesting equipment, agricultural sensors, camera monitoring, and pest monitoring and early warning have been widely used.
● Second, farms with no one or few people break out of the ground. Rural network infrastructure continues to be consolidated, especially big data, 5G, and artificial intelligence technologies continue to mature and popularize, providing basic conditions for the development of unmanned or few-occupied farms
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