Agriculture 4.0 Emerges as Collaborative Development Becomes Key

In the process of advancing industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization in tandem, agriculture, as both a supplier of raw materials for industrial production and a user of manufactured industrial goods, is being driven forward by “Industry 4.0”——

In 2013, Germany formally proposed the concept of “Industry 4.0”, clarifying the important role of informatization in industrialization. Two years later, in 2015, “Agriculture 4.0” was also making waves.

Recently, the modern Agriculture 4.0 model put forward by the Beijing Municipal Supply and Marketing Cooperative (hereinafter referred to as “Beijing Supply and Marketing Cooperative”) appeared at the 2015 Beijing International Agriculture · Agricultural Products Exhibition, drawing attention from industry insiders.

In fact, “Agriculture 4.0” had already shown signs at the beginning of the year. At that time, some industry experts called for applying “Industry 4.0” to the agricultural sector.

A reporter from China Science Daily learned during interviews that “Industry 4.0” breaks down traditional industry boundaries, bringing about cross-industry restructuring and integration, and agriculture, as both a supplier of raw materials for industrial production and a user of manufactured industrial goods, will inevitably be integrated into this era of transformation.

The Birth of a Concept

By the end of 2015, Liuminying in Daxing District, Beijing, will have 500 mu of tomatoes grown in this way: they are not grown in soil but use hydroponics; people entering must wear protective clothing to prevent bacteria from entering; the greenhouse automatically adjusts light as needed - when the tomatoes need to grow quickly, the light is direct, and when they need to grow slowly, it is adjusted to an oblique angle.

This is the modern Agriculture 4.0 that the Beijing Supply and Marketing Cooperative plans to build, with a pilot program set to launch at Liuminying in Daxing District by the end of the year.

According to Liu Fuqiang, Director of the Cooperative Guidance Department of the Beijing Supply and Marketing Cooperative, since production can occur year-round, the yield here is equivalent to eight to ten times that of ordinary tomatoes. Thanks to the application of IoT technology, these tomatoes will be fully traceable throughout the entire process.

In this regard, the Beijing Supply and Marketing Cooperative defines modern Agriculture 4.0 as: adopting modern industrial production methods and automated control systems, combining the world's most advanced cultivation techniques with big data analysis, using IoT sensors and software to control agricultural production through mobile or computer platforms, achieving full traceability of agricultural products, making agricultural production more “intelligent”, and thereby producing efficient, safe, and green agricultural products.

However, in the view of Li Daoliang, a professor at the College of Information and Electrical Engineering at China Agricultural University who has long been engaged in agricultural informatization research, this does not count as “Agriculture 4.0” in the true sense.

“Agriculture 4.0 is a modern agricultural form supported by and employing IoT, big data, mobile internet, and cloud computing technologies. It is smart agriculture, a product of advancing to a higher stage after traditional agriculture, mechanized agriculture, and informatized (automated) agriculture.” Li Daoliang said in an interview with a China Science Daily reporter.

Information Flow “Penetrates Everywhere”

In 2013, the German government proposed “Industry 4.0”, which caused a major response in the international community. Industrial technology and production models, from mechanized production, electrified mass production, automated and informatized production, to networked and intelligent production, are vividly described by the Germans as the four-stage evolution of modern industrial models.

The same applies to agriculture. From Agriculture 1.0 with physical and animal labor, to Agriculture 2.0 with mechanized farming, to Agriculture 3.0 with informatization (automation), and finally reaching the highest stage of modern agriculture, 4.0.

“The important transformation brought by the new round of industrialization is intelligent manufacturing, and agriculture, as both a supplier of raw materials for industrial production and a user of manufactured industrial goods, will inevitably be integrated into this era of transformation, developing toward the intelligent era, namely the ‘Agriculture 4.0’ era.” Li Daoliang said.

“If the concept of ‘Industry 4.0’ is applied to the agricultural sector, it has a certain feasibility, especially in livestock farming and crop cultivation departments.” He Chuanqi, Director of the China Center for Modernization Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told a China Science Daily reporter.

In He Chuanqi's view, the development of modern agriculture comes, on the one hand, from innovations in agricultural science and technology and the agricultural economy itself, and on the other hand, from the application of industrial technology in the agricultural sector.

Today, due to the powerful penetration of IoT and other information technologies, the “ubiquitous” nature of information flow, and the rapid development of intelligence, the three major areas of “Agriculture 4.0” - production, circulation, and consumption - will interconnect with each other, and the three elements of productivity - laborers, means of labor, and objects of labor - will also undergo fundamental changes.

Dr. Zhang Jianhua, Assistant Researcher at the Agricultural Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told a China Science Daily reporter that with the implementation of the national “Internet Plus” action plan, agriculture needs to make full use of modern information technology to build China's modern Agriculture 4.0, and accelerating the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture will become inevitable.

“Bucket Effect” Prominent

In Li Daoliang's view, “Agriculture 4.0” is an emerging phenomenon, and China is currently still at the stage of “defining the concept, enriching the connotations, and designing demonstration projects.” “Agriculture 4.0” is a high degree of integration of modern information technology, with large investment and high risk, exhibiting a typical bucket effect.

Abroad, based on locational differences, American scholars divide modern agriculture into urban agriculture, suburban agriculture, and rural agriculture. In vast rural areas, the focus of modern agriculture is mechanization and informatization, developing large-scale “ecological agriculture” and “precision agriculture” to improve agricultural land productivity and labor productivity.

He Chuanqi told reporters that in urban and suburban areas, it is feasible for modern agriculture to draw on the concept of “Industry 4.0”, “but it must be combined with organic agriculture.”

“Agriculture is a high-risk industry, related both to seasonality and shelf life, and to climate and market changes.” He Chuanqi said that to reduce agricultural risks, it is necessary to link advanced technology, advanced management, and advanced business models. Simply adopting high technology may bring high output, but it may not necessarily bring high efficiency and high returns.

It is well known that in economics and markets, “things are precious when they are scarce.” When agricultural efficiency is very high and agricultural products are abundant, agricultural product prices may decline.

“The key to controlling the cost of agricultural products is to control the ‘relative cost,’ not the absolute cost. That is, one must conduct input-output analysis, or cost-benefit analysis, to bring down the relative cost of agricultural products (the cost relative to the product price), maximizing benefits rather than maximizing efficiency.” He Chuanqi said.

Collaborative Development Is Key

The development of “Agriculture 4.0” relies on the internet, IoT, big data, and cloud computing technologies as its key elements. “Breaking through the core technologies and major key technologies involving agricultural IoT, and meeting the development needs of modern agriculture, is the only path for ‘Agriculture 4.0’ to move from concept to reality.” Li Daoliang said.

At present, the application of information technology in agriculture in China is still not very extensive. When this cross-industry transformation begins and the pace of integration of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries starts, how can traditional agriculture effectively respond to the opportunities and challenges brought by informatization?

Undoubtedly, the upfront investment involving the information industry is enormous. Once built, the marginal cost of providing services to a single user is almost zero. This characteristic makes the entry threshold for future industries increasingly high. “If agricultural production wants to develop and grow, it must learn to cooperate and share information.” an industry expert pointed out.

Li Daoliang believes that China's research on agricultural-specific sensor technology is still relatively lagging, especially in the research, development, and manufacturing of intelligent agricultural sensors, RFID, and other sensing devices. Many application projects still mainly rely on imported sensing equipment.

In Zhang Jianhua's view, in terms of agricultural IoT, related sensor technology and wireless transmission technology have already achieved considerable development and can basically meet the needs of modern Agriculture 4.0 construction. “But attention must be paid to combining IoT with big data analysis, with actual agricultural production, and with agricultural product market circulation.”

It is understood that China Agricultural University, the National Agricultural Informatization Engineering Center, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and other institutions have begun research and development of agricultural sensing equipment. “But most products are still at the laboratory stage, and there is still a considerable gap between their products and foreign products, with a certain distance remaining before industrialization and promotion.” Li Daoliang stated.

“‘Agriculture 4.0’ is the highest stage of modern agriculture. With technological progress, different periods of Agriculture 4.0 such as primary, intermediate, advanced, and ultimate stages may also emerge.” Li Daoliang added.