Wuxi Xishan “Unmanned Farm” Technology Model

On August 4, at the Rice Breeding Center of the Taihu Lake Lake Rice Demonstration Park in Wuxi, a demonstration of the integration of new technologies, new equipment and new models such as unmanned agricultural machine driving, unmanned agricultural machine information management system and unmanned farms was launched here. It is reported that the 500 acres of farmland here have met the requirements of unmanned farms, and the cultivation, management, and harvesting of agricultural production have all achieved unmanned operations.

The 500 acre rice wheat rotation “unmanned farm” built consists of 7 sets of integrated unmanned agricultural machinery, 1 set of rice wheat rotation “unmanned farm” information management platform, and integration of outdoor meteorological monitoring stations, soil moisture monitoring systems, pest monitoring and reporting systems, crop growth monitoring systems, etc.

In the newly leveled farmland, agricultural machinery such as tractors and seeders shuttle back and forth at a constant speed without human driving. In a 30 acre square field, workers on the side use mobile phones to operate tractors with rotating machines to make water slurry in the field. In adjacent fields, under the operation of the staff, the unmanned rice transplanter smoothly advances in the farmland, inserting rows of seedlings neatly into the farmland. This speed is generally around 3-4 kilometers per hour, and the entire process is controllable, “said Wu Jianfei, the general manager of the Shanghai Lianshi Navigation Smart Agriculture Business Unit responsible for the project. The project utilizes the characteristics of 5G communication high speed, low latency, large bandwidth, and wide connectivity, fully leveraging the technical advantages of Zhihui Agricultural Equipment.

Unmanned farms will become a trend. It is reported that manual operation of machinery for planting is currently the most common farming method, but there has always been a shortage of agricultural machinery. Nowadays, through the construction of high standard farmland, agricultural production informatization and intelligent construction with a focus on big data, Internet of Things, 5G Internet, unmanned driving, etc., will effectively promote the “unmanned” process of farms. Jiang Long, deputy director of the Taihu Lake Rice Production Service Center, said that it was easy to miss farming, repeat farming, or hit more or less pesticides when agricultural machinery was operated by hand. After the unmanned operation was adopted, as long as the path was planned in advance in the fields of the unmanned farm, the machinery could be operated in real time through mobile phones. At the same time, the 5G bandwidth was used to enable lossless video transmission, Real time monitoring of various information in the field provides technical support for fully unmanned agricultural machinery operation, which is labor-saving and can improve the quality of planting and management. Jiang Long stated that Xishan National Modern Agriculture Industrial Park will use the unmanned farm project as a starting point to accelerate the digital transformation of agriculture, and take the lead in improving operational accuracy, reducing production costs, improving work efficiency, and promoting the transformation of agricultural development methods. It will continue to promote the construction of smart agriculture and give agriculture the wings of technology.

It is reported that compared to traditional agricultural operations, with the support of 5G communication technology, high-precision Beidou satellite navigation technology, cloud computing, big data and other “smart agriculture”, “unmanned farms” can save more than 2 kilograms of seeds per acre, increase production by 10 kilograms, reduce fuel costs by more than 10%, reduce labor costs by more than 65%, and improve land use efficiency by 0.5% -1%.