Big Data Industry: New technology contributes to modern farming, poverty reduction

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This year's International Big Data Industry Expo is underway in southwest China's Guiyang city. And one of the hottest topics at the event is how big data can be applied to poverty reduction efforts. CGTN's Yang Jinghao visited a county there to find out more.

Zhou Zhenpin's life became much easier once some surveillance cameras were installed in his kiwi orchard. With the simple click of a mouse at home, the Guiyang city man can clearly see almost every corner of the orchard on the screen.

ZHOU ZHENPIN LOCAL FARMER "My orchards cover an area of more than 670-thousand square meters. It took me about three hours to patrol around before. But now, I can easily get to know what my workers are doing somewhere and what diseases some plants are suffering from."

This is just part of a set of equipment placed in his farmlands. The matched mini "meteorological stations" play a special role.

YANG JINGHAO XIUWEN COUNTY, GUIYANG "These devices are used to collect various data related to air, soil and rainfall here. It's then transmitted in real-time to a big data center in the county."

Xiuwen County started kiwi farming about 30 years ago. In that time, local farmers have cultivated the fruit all by experience, and relied largely on luck for their earnings. In 2015, the local government established an agricultural investment company to transform the development mode through big data applications.

YANG JIAN, DEPUTY GENERAL MANAGER XIUWEN AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT AND DEVT. LTD "Our experts will work out a scientific planting and field management plan based on analysis of this data, such as when to pollinate, fertilize and harvest, to make sure the quality of the fruit can live up to a high standard."

And the data analysis is applied all the way to sales, which can help farmers flexibly adjust their farming plans. Now, the efforts have paid off.

YANG JIAN, DEPUTY GENERAL MANAGER XIUWEN AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT AND DEVT. LTD "The rate of waste has declined by about 20 percent, which has transformed into net profits. Meanwhile, good quality can guarantee a competitive price. All of this has benefited farmers whose income has obviously increased."

What was once a backward area, Xiuwen is now a model of fighting poverty in an innovative way. This echoes a key agenda of the ongoing big data industry expo in Guiyang – how big data can contribute to poverty reduction. Officials, executives and scholars are all sharing their insights on this long-term challenge.

YAO HONGYU CLOUD COMPUTING SCIENTIST "A major problem now is that the cost of scientific farming is relatively high. So how to expand this mode and make it sustainable remains a challenge. But I believe the issues can be addressed with the improvement of related technologies and optimization of the business mode."

Yao's other suggestion – properly matching the labor force in rural areas with the employment market via big data applications. He says this can be another viable attempt at reducing poverty. YJH, CGTN, Guiyang, Guizhou Province.