The digitalization of agriculture, which in previous years had been a wasteland, was difficult and empty. We've only recently seen a bit of green coming out of it. The use of high-tech and digital technologies in agriculture, “making agriculture work and farmers grow”, is emerging as a social consensus。
In the area of technological innovation, aliyun will support agricultural scientists in activating agricultural megadata, helping agricultural producers to plan and manage accurately, and improving the productive efficiency and resource utilization of farmers; in the area of business innovation, aliyun will promote 13 agro-related operations, provide digital access to the whole-industry chain innovation system that connects agricultural scientists, and digitize the entire chain of research-production-supply-sale。
Lee jin
Vice-president of the ali baba group
Managing director, aliyun smart global technical services
Shandong sunshine, the birthplace of the chinese winter vegetable shed
It's full of deep-seated vegetable sheds and it's being modified by the digital wave
Special farmers
Eight to five, one day a week, mobile phones almost remained on hand — a 27-year-old li sun, who appeared to be in “classes” similar to those of other young people every day。
However, people were somewhat surprised when their relatives and friends asked him about his specific work and got a response from the robots. As you all know, this home-grown young man who studied civil engineering at the university of aoshima, graduated from the local state-owned enterprise port holdings group, at which he ate “national foods” and was growing, more than i can imagine, “robots”。
It is not surprising that young people grow vegetables in the light of their birthday, as this is a country known as the home of vegetables, which are the mainstay of the local industry and are heavily employed。
The number of radiant vegetable sheds has been monitored on satellite maps, with a total of 23,1764, arranged on 60 kilometres long and 48 kilometres wide. In 2019, the total production of vegetable guacamole in the sunlight city exceeded 5 million tons。
For farmers here, the income from growing vegetables is considerable. According to statistics, in 2018, the disposable income was 20627 yuan for slain farmers and 14617 yuan for farmers nationwide. In recent years, after 80 and 90 years of work outside the home, they have grown their vegetables, mostly from their homes, and have been self-sufficient。
But lee sun is not like them. The “house” in which he grows his vegetables is not an individual, but is built by the hong kong holdings group together with aliyun. It has an industrially modulated, technologically sensitive name — the birthday ali digital vegetable factory。
Just look, it envies the farmers who come to visit: the shantytowns are like a high-tech lab in a movie, quiet and clean, clean and clean, and there is no dirt, and the temperature, humidity, light and air are all comfortable parameters. In the traditional huts, people need to endure all kinds of discomfort, heat, mud and dampness。
The farmers are all the more surprised that not only do they have no hoes, sickle, etc. In their tools, but even most of the agricultural work does not have to be done by themselves. All he had to do was pull his cell phone, and he was able to direct the machine to do things like planting, harvesting, etc. He never had to look at the face of god. He had to use his mobile phone to control temperature, humidity parameters, or worry about wind, snow and pests. He doesn't even envy those who earn more than he does: "because they pay far more than i do, in terms of the labour that i pay, the pay is high。
Lee, who grew up in the rural areas of suu kyi, has grown vegetables since his small family, and he has seen all kinds of hard work in growing them: snowing in the middle of the night in winter and the need to support the shed with manpower in the event of snowfall; in summer, a flood can destroy a family's heart for six months in the middle of the day; in order to collect the most appropriate cucumber in size, farmers must get up at one or two a. M. And complete all the pick-up within three hours, because after 5 a. M., the head of the cucumber will be too big to sell the high price of “prefectures” and, overall, the process will be difficult and unmanageable。
Lifelight ali digital vegetables, changing the general impression of vegetable sheds
It's clean, clean, and there's a natural smell of vegetables in the air
Auto-regulated roofs based on sensor data to control the light required for vegetables
Vegetables in the shed are growing up
Vegetable plants use hydroponic vegetable practices to ensure both safety and stability in vegetable production
In the nursery, the "mechanics" are being sprouted into seedlings for the quality of their selection. Medium
And now, at 8:30 a. M. Each morning, lee enters the shed on time to observe the growth of vegetables and then goes back to the office to write the work logs, record the parameters and remember his thoughts。
Sometimes, he sits alone in the shed, watching the vegetables grow silently, and the sun falls, which most farmers in china cannot enjoy “stable life, quiet years”。
This is achieved by the technology of networking behind digital vegetable plants and the use of a range of automation equipment。
Cool water line
This number of vegetable plants, located in the town of willows in sukuoka city, shandong province, was built in 2019, including two projects, the digital vegetables plant and the digital agricultural applications platform。
The 300-metre stand-alone greenhouse in the project was the first demonstration project in the country for a digital vegetable factory to be built using a winter solar greenhouse. It is planned to grow mainly more than 20 varieties of vegetables, producing more than 20 tons per year。
In april 2020, the first phase of the project became operational. After conducting market research and taking full account of the technological horizons, lettuce is the first type of plant to be grown on a large scale because of market demand and weight size。
The plant's centralized control station, which is equivalent to the “brain” for the cultivation of vegetables, shows the distribution of items on farms, the location of planting sites and the operation of various equipment. By monitoring real-time conditions such as temperature, humidity and photocooperative radiation, the control station is directing the work of the corresponding smart equipment, thus increasing the efficiency of planting and improving the quality of raw vegetables and reducing human costs。
In nursery rooms, the quality seeds screened are laid in seedlings, so that the breeder needs to adjust the parameters of the incubator. Traditional seedlings are heavily dependent on outside light and temperature, and the use of solar lighting techniques to light seeds and reduce one month's nursery time to two weeks by controlling humidity, temperature and so on has increased nursery efficiency。
When the seedlings grow to one heart, they are moved to the plant. The specific process of planting is to place the seedlings in the agv (auto-directive) minibus, which is based on a set parameter instruction, and then send them to the specified nursery bed, which is then pushed to the planting bed. All operations are done without manpower。
The next 30 days would be long and would require only two staff members for day-to-day management。
The most important of these is irrigation and fertilization, which is carried out through a water fertilisation machine, with only ec (electricity) values for nutrients, ph values for water and frequency of irrigation on a mobile phone connected to the equipment。
In traditional planting methods, fertilizer concentrations depend on farmers ' experience to ensure that higher concentrations burn seedlings and lower levels of nutrition. However, in the ariyun digital vegetable plant, fertilizer concentrations can be appropriate and other parameters can achieve the best value suitable for vegetable growth。
So how does temperature and humidity automate? The shed contains various sensors for data collection and cameras for staff monitoring. When the temperature is too high or too low, the system provides a hint and automatically opens or closes the curtains on the roof to cool or heat up。
The most difficult pathological problems of traditional cultivation have also been successfully addressed here. Vegetable plant production is based on nft (nutrient membrane) soilless cultivation, which means that the vegetable production process is isolated from the soil and the outside world。
The main factor in the disease of vegetables is the heavy burden of planting vegetables in the same soil many times, which can lead to some bacteria remaining in the land, resulting in endemic diseases and high risks to vegetables. The flow of hydroponic vegetables has prevented the spread of endemic diseases because of the fluidity of water. In addition, vegetable plants are equipped with ozone generators, sterilisation of nutrients, and some aids, such as the installation of anti-worm nets in vents and the isolation of insects from farms. Under such a scientific system of control, vegetable factories are almost free of disease。
Each vegetable has the most suitable environment for growth and water fertilization parameters, and traditional cultivation can be controlled only by farmers ' own experience, so that the finished products are often poorly grown。
Everything can be standardized at the digital vegetable factory in aliyun. Through data accumulation and algorithmic excavation, its technology platform for physical networking allows for the development of models that are best suited to crop growth, such as planting, ring control, hydrofertilizers and so on, leading to standardized cultivation。
Who's going to plant the land? How
“the control of oil controls all nations; the control of food controls all mankind.” as former united states secretary of state kissinger said, the issue of food has always been of greatest concern to all humanity, with political rights at stake and the stomach of ordinary people。
But the issue of food has also been a world problem, and even today, when the majority of the population is free from hunger, the food crisis persists, with supply and demand at the top of the problem. According to fao, the global population will reach 10 billion by 2050. In other words, over the next 30 years, world population will grow by about 30 per cent and food consumption will increase significantly。
In china, food supply and demand are particularly critical. According to china's rural development report 2020, published by the institute for rural development of the chinese academy of social sciences, by the end of the “1450” period (approximately 2025), there could be a food gap of about 130 million tons。
The main factors contributing to the conflict between supply and demand are the following:
First, china is a large country with a large population, but it is seriously under-resourced for agricultural land. China needs to feed 22 per cent of the world's population by using only 7 per cent of the world's arable land。
Second, and worse, agricultural labour is increasingly scarce. Currently, rural ageing is increasing and, according to statistics, the average age of the rural labour force in china is almost 55 years old. At the same time, farmers ' incentives to grow food have declined, and as china's urbanization process continues, the rural population flows into the cities in large numbers, after 80 years without wanting to grow, after 90 years without knowing how to grow, has become the norm in rural areas。
Finally, the economic model of small-scale farmers, “dwelling and eating”, has long constrained our movement from large to strong agricultural countries。
Self-sufficiency, supply and demand balance would then require efficiency gains in the limited resources of cultivated land. In simple terms, if the two dilemmas of “who will grow the land, how to grow the land” are breached, everything will be resolved。
The birth of the aliyun digital vegetable factory offers solutions to these two difficulties and explores a new path for the development of china's intelligent agriculture。
Digital vegetable factories address labour shortages first. The combination of technology and automation equipment for the internet greatly reduces human input。
In addition to the need for additional hands during nursery and harvest periods, only two workers can manage a shed during the growing season of vegetables. In li sun's words, "as long as you have a cell phone, you have a signal, you can grow food anytime." this means that it breaks the time and space limit and that a labour force can even manage multiple huts at the same time。
Scattered authors travel through the rich digital fields
Digital vegetable plants save manpower and produce six times more vegetables a year than traditional sheds
In addition, the comfortable environment of digital vegetable factories, which allows agriculture to leave behind the hardship of farmers in traditional models, is extremely attractive to farmers。
More importantly, vegetable factories produce very well. More than 4,000 square metres of machinery are available to grow 36,000 vegetables, which overcome seasonality and can grow 12 to 16 plants per year, while disease control improves the yield of good products, reaching 20 tons per year, six times the production of traditional sheds。
This water-flowing pattern of industrialization makes “making farmers attractive occupations, making agriculture a running industry” no longer an empty slogan, but a reality at a “visible” rate。
For consumers, the safety of vegetables will be enhanced. The use of networking technology in vegetable factories has made the entire cultivation and transport of each dish transparent, meaning that consumers can trace each dish. This is an effective regulation。
Possible approaches to digital agricultural plants
This story of “plant growing” vegetables, “commercialization of agriculture”, begins with the “terrestrial” element。
When both sides joined forces in 2019 to build the country's first digital vegetable plant, agricultural technology was already at the wind. New technologies that can transform agricultural development have been widely recognized in the market, and capital is more favourable to “smart agriculture”. According to statistics, as early as 2015, china had invested $4. 6 billion in science and technology in agriculture。
On the land side, it may be difficult to find a place in the country that is more suitable for agricultural reform and the promotion of intelligent agriculture than for lifelight. Lifelight agriculture has a strong agricultural base and cultivation techniques are at the forefront of the country。
As early as 30 years ago, lifelight came to an end with the “go-to-go” situation, with the opening of a river in the northern shed for the cultivation of anti-season vegetables. The “suspended winter and warm shed” was once extended throughout the country, where it was known as the “lectual representative” of chinese agriculture. In terms of marketing, eugenic light is the largest vegetable trading centre in asia。
And look at the two main actors in the investment operation, they're a team of strong players。
The hong kong investment holdings group is a local state-owned enterprise with a capacity and enthusiasm for sustainable inputs, which is particularly important for the risk and return cycles facing agro-industries。
As china's internet giant, ali baba, with the most advanced artificial intelligence, physical networking and big data technology, can be said to have a better grasp of the “soul” of intelligent agriculture. In addition, the combined resource advantage of alibaba in the field of vegetable life, which has marketing channels on and off lines such as poaching, boxing, etc., is difficult to compare with other enterprises。
In our research, we have found that this “test field”, which requires substantial financial investment and has a long cycle of return, is unattainable for ordinary farmers. The start-up of the vegetable factory, which has already been in operation, has been invested in millions of yuan, which means that entrepreneurship and scale-up are viable options for the introduction of digital agricultural plants。
There is still a long way to go, and there are many aspects to be improved, in the intelligent agriculture explored by the digital vegetable factory. Vegetable plants, for example, still have some limitations on plant varieties, and quantification and standardization are not currently available for quantified vegetables, awaiting technical upgrade of hardware equipment。
Furthermore, the digitalization of agriculture should not be limited to the field, but extended to the terminal. Zhang ziyang, head of the agricultural technology company for lifelight city, stated that the vegetable factory is currently working on sales, and that in the near future it will be possible to create a digitalized distribution supply chain at the end of the line, using multiple offline channels, such as poaching and boxing, to meet the demand for new retail outlets on the line and to promote a balanced distribution。
