Life made easier as farmers turn to tech

Robots and other devices taking agriculture into the future

At an agricultural technology company in a city known as the "vegetable capital of China", crops are thriving in a shipping container.

The roots of these green-leaf vegetables are immersed in water rich in nutrients. A screen in the container shows information about the temperature, humidity, concentration of carbon dioxide, the lighting levels and concentration of the nutrient solution.

Liu Pengpeng, who oversees the container vegetable project at Shouguang Xiangtian Agriculture Co in Jitai town, Shouguang, said it takes 28 days for these vegetable seedlings to grow before they can be harvested and put on the market.

"Using hydroponic systems, we designed this mobile shipping container vegetable farm, which can withstand severe weather conditions for fresh vegetables to be grown locally all year round," Liu said.

"In comparison, in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, workers who build railways and highways in sparsely populated areas have to drive more than 50 kilometers to buy fresh vegetables."

Liu, who has worked in Xinjiang for several years, added, "The container farm enables workers to grow fresh vegetables by themselves."

After three years' work analyzing data collected by sensors installed in the containers, the company developed a comprehensive manual containing instructions on how to grow the vegetables.

"Good crops are being produced at container farms with the help of these manuals, which show how to set the controls for the systems that provide everything the vegetables need, such as nutrients and automatic lighting," Liu said.

A 40-foot shipping container is typically used to grow some 5,000 green-leaf vegetables on the equivalent of 0.13 hectares of farmland, he said.

Since launching the first hydroponic container farm in 2017, the company has sold more than 40, mainly to customers in countries such as Canada, Russia, Malaysia, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates.

It expects to sell more than 2,000 farms this year as businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on the hydroponic systems, farmers in Huimin county, Binzhou, developed a deep flow technique to grow chives.

Wei Kun, a technician at Shandong Xincheng Agriculture Co, which is based in Huimin, said, "The roots of chives grow in a nutrient water solution of 10 to 30 centimeters, which ensures the plants have sufficient nutrients and oxygen."

Crops grown by using hydroponic systems are not affected by chive maggots, a pest that attacks the roots, Wei said.

"In our greenhouse, we don't need to use pesticides on the chives," Wei said, adding that the crops are welcomed at markets.

Along with hydroponic systems, vegetable-growing technologies are used widely by farmers in Shandong to grow healthy food and to make their work easier.