Sufficient power helps smart agriculture in Anhui

In the prefecture-level city of Chuzhou in Anhui province, a national-level modern agricultural industrial park has taken shape by incorporating smart agriculture into all of its agricultural processes.

Located in Yongfeng town in the county-level city of Tianchang under Chuzhou, the agricultural park has developed industries centering on rice and gorgon fruit or "chicken-head rice" — a round, white and small seed which can tonify spleen and stomach according to traditional Chinese medicine.

Zhang Jinsheng, general manager of Anhui Tiankang Smart Agriculture Co Ltd, which runs the park, said the park has incorporated improved seed breeding, green cultivation, the integration of crop planting and breeding, leisure and cultural tourism into one.

"We have introduced new generation information technologies such as the internet of things, big data and cloud computing, into our park, embarking on a road of intelligent agriculture," he said.

So far, the park has installed 233 sets of intelligent agricultural equipment and 12 sets of platform systems, raising its utilization rate of water resources by 30 percent and its utilization rate of fertilizers by 20 percent, in addition to reducing the use of pesticides by 20 percent and human labor by 30 percent, he added.

"While our daily command and dispatch of agricultural production has realized visualization, our e-commerce has allowed our products to reach the "Three-hour Fresh Agricultural Products Logistics Circle" in the Yangtze River Delta region," Zhang said.

However, he stressed, the park's success cannot go without the full power support from the local unit of the State Grid — the world's largest utility which shoulders a dual task of safeguarding China's energy security as well as its economic lifeline.

The sufficient electricity supply from Tianchang City Power Supply Co of the State Grid has safeguarded the efficient operation of the agricultural park, Zhang said.