Digital agriculture empowers rural revitalization

On July 28th, in Huanggong Village, Baojiadian Town, Manas County, pump room administrator He Pingshan was dribbling “high yield water” for 13000 acres of high standard farmland.

In late July, 650000 acres of high-quality machine harvested cotton in the county entered the flowering and boll period, with promising growth. As a national high-quality commodity cotton production base, Manas County actively explores new ways of digital empowerment to leverage rural revitalization and development, accelerates the digital transformation of various fields and links in traditional agriculture, vigorously promotes the application of new digital agriculture technologies such as satellite remote sensing, intelligent drip irrigation, and smart farms, cultivates new farmers who adapt to the development of digital agriculture, and adds new momentum to the high-quality development of agriculture.

Digital agriculture is a collective concept that mainly includes four parts: agricultural IoT, precision agriculture, agricultural big data, and smart agriculture. The IoT electric valve installed in our village is the latest key equipment of agricultural IoT, with built-in solar power supply and 5G communication, which can wirelessly control farmland irrigation 24/7, achieving large-scale automation and precision water-saving drip irrigation. “said Zhang Shengbin, Secretary of the Party General Branch of Huanggong Village in Baojiadian Town, The village relies on advantages such as abundant water resources and large land area, and the development of the cotton industry is gradually forming a certain scale.

In 2022, Huanggong Village will strive for a high standard farmland construction project funding of 9.45 million yuan, guide professional cotton planting cooperatives to self raise supporting funds of 4 million yuan, and install irrigation equipment such as water fertilizer integrated machines and IoT electric valves for 6300 acres of farmland; Actively contacting the Manas County Power Supply Company of the State Grid, delivering “reliable electricity” and “satisfactory electricity” to the fields, accelerating the upgrading and renovation of pump room transformers, and thoroughly solving the problem of safe and stable operation of digital agricultural equipment such as high-power integrated drip irrigation pumps for water and fertilizer.

The agricultural and rural departments of Manas County have collaborated with China Agricultural University, Northwest A&F University, Shihezi University, Xinjiang Agricultural University, and Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences to carry out research on the application of intelligent water and fertilizer integration technology. At the same time, a 6300 acre high standard farmland digital transformation demonstration pilot training base will be built in Huanggong Village, Baojiadian Town. Xinjiang Huier Agricultural Group Co., Ltd. and Xinjiang Xinlianxin Energy and Chemical Co., Ltd. will be entrusted to conduct comparative experiments on intelligent water and fertilizer integration technology, accelerating the on-site transformation of scientific research achievements. In 2022, the water consumption of cotton from planting to harvesting was reduced to 360 cubic meters per acre, setting a new record for agricultural water-saving in northern Xinjiang.