On April 10, Hunan’s first unmanned farm project was put into operation at Xinyang Village, Gaotangling Neighborhood, Wangcheng District, Changsha City. It was a key project supported by the Hunan provincial agricultural machinery department. It will facilitate spring ploughing and rice transplanting.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, a driverless seedling thrower was working in a 4-mu (0.27-ha.) field according to a planned route. The field was filled with green seedlings in less than an hour. Unmanned smart agriculture practices including ploughing and transplanting were demonstrated. This attracted experts and major grain farmers from inside and outside the province.

The event focused on developing smart agriculture and boosting rural vitalization, according to a relevant person in charge of the Hunan Provincial Agricultural Machinery Affairs Center. It aimed to guarantee double-crop rice planting area with the help of agricultural machinery. Unmanned agricultural practices were promoted to facilitate Hunan’s agricultural modernization and provide strong support for spring ploughing and food security.

The unmanned farm project is located in Dazhongyuan embankment which covers 40,000 mu (2,666 ha.) of paddy fields. The demonstration area of first phase is 280 mu (18 ha.). The project introduces unmanned farm key technologies from the research team led by Academician Luo Xiwen, and promotes quality rice varieties bred by academician Yuan Longping and his team. It adopts advanced agricultural machinery and equipment developed by Zoomlion. These efforts aim to build Hunan’s first unmanned farm for double-crop rice cultivation and make it a model project.

At the launching ceremony, Yuan Yanwen, director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, announced the start of rice transplanting this year. Local authorities were asked to make great efforts to stabilize cultivation area and crop yield, so as to ensure the completion of the annual grain production task.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn