Festival shows how smart tech is transforming modern farming

A robot dog patrolling a demonstration field during the Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival in Shandong province became the center of attention on Tuesday, drawing crowds of curious onlookers.

Equipped with a multispectral camera and intelligent recognition algorithms, the four-legged machine scanned rows of crops, uploaded data to a central platform and produced a detailed report of the farmland.

Song Zhihua, chairman of Shandong Shenlan Zhipu Digital Technology, said the smart field-patrol robot dog consists of three main parts: the robot itself, environmental sensing equipment and, most importantly, a multispectral camera with edge-computing capacity.

"It focuses on crop growth, soil moisture and pest detection. It's just like a doctor for the fields," Song said.

The main event of the eighth annual festival, held in Dahuchenjia village of Zhaoyuan city, showcased the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and robotics in agriculture. From robots that pick fruit with bionic hands to drones spraying crops, the exhibits highlighted how smart technology is transforming farming across China.

Apart from the robot dog designed for field management, a fruit-picking robot developed by the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Machinery Sciences impressed participants with its precise operation. Equipped with vision recognition and real-time data fusion technology, it could detect ripened fruit and pluck it with a biomimetic mechanical hand.

"Farmers could simply relax in a chair, push a button and let machines do the plowing, sowing and harvesting. In the future, all operations will be unmanned," said Yang Huawei, vice-president of the academy.

At the main venue in Zhaoyuan, the program featured a grand gala, five themed exhibitions and five special activities, including displays of seed industry advances, modern farming machinery, and smart agriculture applications such as unmanned tractors and farm robots.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the country's high-standard farmland has expanded to about 67 million hectares, the mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvesting has exceeded 75 percent, and smart equipment is increasingly integrated into every stage of production.

In Lhundrub county, Xizang autonomous region, agricultural equipment and techniques have also greatly improved over the years. Tian Kexing, an agricultural technician, recalled how when he started work in 2011, only tractors were available.

"Back then, farming was rough. Crops with different varieties were mixed together. There was a lack of uniform standards and field management," Tian said.

At present, the county has more than 35 crop-protection drones and nearly 300 combine harvesters, bringing the total number of agricultural equipment in the county to more than 110,000 units. Mechanization usage has reached over 90 percent. Standardized planting technologies and improved barley varieties have stabilized yields and raised efficiency, Tian said.

Similar changes were on display in Cangxi county in Sichuan province, where a themed event featured smart machinery in rice paddies and a bustling livestreaming zone where local officials and influencers sold produce online.

Nationwide, more than 3,000 online and offline activities were held across various provinces to celebrate this year's bumper harvest and fuel rural vitalization.

Since its launch in 2018, the Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival has grown into a nationwide platform to promote rural culture and exhibit achievements in food security, poverty alleviation and modernization.

Palden Nyima in Lhasa contributed to this story.