There are now successful models of all-automated, unmanned farms underway in a few parts of the world, but China is going gang-busters with the idea. A Xinhua article Jan. 7 presents a review, reporting that Heilongjiang province had six pilot project “intelligent agriculture” farms in operation in 2020. They used 875 unmanned planters, and many harvesters, and harvested 1,000 hectares of rice, soybeans and corn. In addition to driverless machinery, utilizing BeiDou satellite navigation, they operate a digital platform to gather and act on environmental factors, such as water and temperature; soil fertility and crop stage monitoring. The farms make major use of drones for pesticides, monitoring and other purposes.
Overall, “As of September, China had set up 18 unmanned pilot agriculture zones for 14 types of crops in 12 provinces and autonomous regions, covering more than 5300 hectares of farmland. Roughly 45,000 sets of BeiDou-based automatic driving agricultural machinery are working nationwide, cutting labor costs by 50%.”
