Exploring the highlights of smart agricultural technology innovation in Shanghai

“This set of smart planting device is equivalent to a small vegetable production workshop, where seedlings grow as planned in the artificially set lighting conditions and nutrient solution.” In front of a home appliance exhibition platform in the Digital transformation Experience Hall of Shanghai City, what attracted reporters was not only the upgraded soilless cultivation technology, but also the successful exploration of e-commerce platform “cross-border” smart agriculture.

The project leader of the platform, Han Shuai, introduced that this soilless cultivation technology has been promoted and applied in multiple units, solving the problem of difficulty for officers and soldiers to eat fresh green vegetables in special environments.

“The frontier defense company I served in had a long period of snow and closed the mountain, so it was difficult to eat vegetables before. Later, soilless cultivation technology was introduced, and fresh vegetables could be eaten all the year round!” Bruce Lee, who had just retired from a frontier defense company in Xinjiang Military Region, told reporters that he was a beneficiary of science and technology enabled agriculture.

Eating well is the minimum standard, and eating well is the higher pursuit. “Han Shuai introduced that his e-commerce platform is cooperating with relevant scientific research units, seed industry innovation enterprises, etc. to adjust and optimize soilless cultivation technology, upgrade algorithms, and strive to grow vegetables with higher yield and quality in a shorter time with lower energy consumption.

It is understood that Shanghai is fully exploring the urban agricultural development path of “green agriculture+digital agriculture”. More and more people are bravely becoming “trendsetters” and joining the “blue ocean” of smart agriculture, with innovative vitality constantly emerging.

At the Xihongqiao Base of China’s Beidou Industrial Technology Innovation, there is a retired soldier’s Rongchuang Service Center. The reporter learned from the center that many hardware facilities in the container “plant factories” currently used by some troops stationed on islands are independently developed by science and technology innovation enterprises founded by retired soldier An Jun.

In addition, technological means are also embedded in the entire process of crop growth, and through data, the entire process of sowing, harvesting, and sales of agricultural products can be recorded. This approach is also an innovative practice of actively implementing Shanghai’s requirements for “enhancing the controllability of agricultural product origin sources”. “Through technology empowerment, we have strengthened regular monitoring of agricultural production, processing, transportation, storage, sales and other links to ensure that the supply of staple and non-staple food products on the table is adequate, stable and green,” said Zhang Guohua, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

The foundation of agriculture is stable and there is ample momentum for development. The people’s longing for a better life is no longer just about “having enough to eat”, but about “eating well, eating green, and eating healthy”. Wireless sensing, mobile interconnection, automatic control… These once seemingly unrelated information technologies have now integrated into all aspects of modern agricultural production in Shanghai’s urban areas, leading a new trend of “future agriculture”.