In recent years, China has taken several measures for the development of smart agriculture. It has undertaken a number of major demonstration projects and made breakthroughs in technologies such as agricultural systems, intelligent equipment and automatic navigation and driving system for agricultural machinery powered by the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System.

The development of smart agriculture is also listed as a key task for 2022, according to China's top central document unveiled on February 22, which called for greater efforts on developing digital villages by pushing for smart agriculture and empowering rural public services with digital technologies.

CGTN sat down with Peng Bin, founder and CEO of China's agriculture drone service provider XAG, talking about the development of smart agriculture in China and his expectations towards the industry ahead of the upcoming Two Sessions.

Edited for clarity and brevity, here are some excerpts from the interview with Peng.

CGTN: How has China developed smart agriculture in recent years?

Peng: State subsidies for agricultural machinery are benefiting smart agriculture. The most direct way is agricultural machinery. For example, our drones are subsidized by the state in many regions. Our users, such as farmers and farming cooperatives, get direct subsidies of thousands to tens of thousands of yuan when purchasing our agricultural drones. It helps them apply intelligent equipment in agriculture, reduces users' costs and increases their motivation. Moreover, the development of unmanned and intelligent farms in various regions has also driven the application of technology in agriculture.

CGTN: China has seen a decrease in cultivated land. What is the significance of developing smart agriculture in this context?

Peng: The reasons for the decrease in cultivated land are complex. First, a large number of young people are moving to cities, leading to the abandonment of farmlands in some remote areas. Farmlands are also becoming more concentrated. In this situation, smart agriculture can help reduce farmers' workload, increase efficiency, etc. The drone is a typical example. A single drone can have thousands of acres of service efficiency per day working on a concentrated farmland. Smart agriculture can also help increase productivity, making farmland management easier, and generate more profit.

CGTN: How is China's path in smart agriculture different from countries with advanced agriculture?

Peng: China is pretty large and different regions have different landforms. In the U.S. and other countries with advanced agriculture, the farmlands are substantially concentrated, which is unlikely to happen on a large scale in China. Therefore, China has a different path in smart agriculture from these countries. We should make modest development in mechanization. In this path, smart agriculture in China might mean the use of robots. I often give examples to my colleagues and friends that the image of agriculture in the future is definitely not farmers working with hoes and sickles. It will be various robots deployed to the farmland, taking care of the crops, while humans monitor and maintain these robots. This is what smart agriculture could be like in China in the future.

CGTN: What are your suggestions for and expectations from the industry?

Peng: We can see that young people don't know what agriculture looks like today. Therefore, I suggest increasing the popularization of agricultural technology. I also hope digital agriculture and smart agriculture can be placed as part of a high-standard farmland. High-standard farmland today mainly refers to infrastructure, such as roads and canals. I hope a high-standard farmland can go beyond infrastructure to having the ability to obtain data, which can make farming easier.

Reporter: Guo Meiping 

Video editor: Zeng Hongen

Cover image: Xing Cheng

Producer: Li Tianfu

Chief editor: Lin Dongwei

Supervisor: Li Chunxia