Institute of Cotton, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Releases Smart Agricultural Technology

At the “Integration and Demonstration of Intelligent and Mechanized Cotton Production Technology in the Yellow River Basin” and the National Smart Agricultural Technology Exchange Conference held on the 24th, the Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (hereinafter referred to as “CICS”) released the latest smart agricultural technology. This technology is independently developed by the cotton intelligent cultivation innovation team. Compared with traditional cotton planting management methods, it can reduce the labor cost of cotton water and fertilizer management by more than 80%, achieve precise management of cotton water and fertilizer, and improve the utilization rate and yield of cotton water and fertilizer.

Researcher Li Yabing, a scientist at the cultivation physiology position of the national cotton industry technology system and the chief scientist of the cotton intelligent cultivation innovation team of the China Cotton Institute, introduced that in response to the current problems faced by China’s cotton production, such as cumbersome labor, high investment, and low efficiency, the cotton intelligent cultivation innovation team of the China Cotton Institute has independently researched and developed automatic monitoring of crop growth and soil environment Smart agricultural technology, including core technologies such as decision-making management and intelligent control of water and fertilizer.

This technology mainly includes three parts: crop management decision-making technology, hardware equipment, and software platform. Among them, crop management decision-making technology is based on crop growth and environmental monitoring, combined with crop growth needs and growth models to achieve management decision-making; Hardware equipment includes self-developed information sensing equipment, data collection equipment, and remote control equipment; Software platforms include intelligent agricultural cloud management platforms based on the Internet of Things and mobile apps.

By utilizing this intelligent agricultural technology, farmers can monitor crop growth and manage a series of fields such as watering and fertilizing without leaving their homes, achieving “a screen of control over ten thousand acres of fertile land”. At the same time, researchers can analyze, diagnose, and make scientific decisions on crop growth status based on the environmental and crop information collected in the background, combined with crop models, to assist users in reasonable water and fertilizer management and remote intelligent control.

The reporter learned that this technology is completely independently developed by the cotton intelligent cultivation team of China Cotton Institute. It has the advantages of good timeliness, low cost, and easy operation, and can meet the centralized demands of modern agriculture for precision, standardization, intelligence, and cost saving and efficiency increase. The cost for farmers to use is about 20% to 30% of that of similar products on the market, providing them with an economical and easy to use smart agricultural solution.

This technology is mainly used for cotton production management, and has been widely demonstrated and applied in Nangong, Hebei, Jiujiang, Jiangxi, Changde, Shandong Binzhou, Kashgar, Shihezi, Shaya, Alar, and other places in Xinjiang, achieving precise irrigation and fertilization. Compared with traditional management, this technology can save 20% water, over 80% labor costs for water and fertilizer, and reduce management costs by 80-90 yuan/mu.

In addition, this technology can also be used for facility agriculture, and has been demonstrated and applied in greenhouse greenhouses in Binzhou, Shandong, Jiujiang, Jiangxi, and Anyang, Henan. By achieving real-time environment and crop growth monitoring for orchards and greenhouses, integration of water and fertilizer, automatic opening of rolling curtains and ventilation, and shading nets, it can save 10000 to 20000 yuan/year in greenhouse labor and save more than 30% water. In addition, the intelligent control equipment and cloud management system matched with this technology can also be used for the planting management process of major crops such as rice, wheat, and corn, which is conducive to improving agricultural production efficiency and quality.