Branding, Smart Technology and High Efficiency in Modern Agriculture, as Seen at the Agricultural Trade Fair
Spring flowers and autumn fruit: autumn is the season of abundant harvests. Recently, the 12th China International Agricultural Trade Fair was held in Qingdao, Shandong Province, with novel, excellent and specialty agricultural products from all over the country “gathered under one roof”. What fresh goods are there at this year's agricultural trade fair? How smart is the legendary “smart agriculture”? What new trends are there in modern agriculture? A reporter found out at the agricultural trade fair.
Branding + Traceability: Greater Assurance for Food Safety
The richly aromatic soy milk powder of the Jiusan Group, the “Xixia Wang” diplomatic envoy series wines that won an award in France, Beidahuang organic coarse grains, Shangrao native honey, Honghu ecological soft-shelled turtle…… In front of the booths of the state farm exhibition delegation, many exhibitors and traders came one after another to negotiate and make purchases.
Ye Yazhi, deputy director of the Quality and Safety Division of the China State Farms Economic Development Center, told reporters that in recent years, state farms have vigorously promoted the building of brands and traceability systems to ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products. Among the products displayed at the agricultural trade fair, many have achieved traceability; for example, for the Honghu ecological soft-shelled turtle, scanning the product QR code with WeChat on a mobile phone brings up information including breeding details and the name of the producing company.
Food safety is a topic of great concern to the people. At this year's agricultural trade fair, pollution-free, green and organic agricultural products occupied almost all the booths and were sought after by exhibitors and the public.
The reporter learned from the Ministry of Agriculture that in the first half of this year, the pass rates in routine monitoring for vegetables, livestock and poultry, and aquatic products nationwide reached 95.9%, 99.4% and 93.1% respectively. In the future, standardized planting and breeding will be promoted, brand building for agricultural products will be advanced, the food safety traceability system will be improved, and grassroots testing and supervision capacity will be enhanced to ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products.
Internet of Things + Big Data: “Smart Agriculture” Gets Smarter
In the agricultural informatization exhibition area, sensor “robots” “hidden” among simulated wheat fields and drones in the air drew many visitors who stopped to watch. It is understood that the sensors can sense information such as temperature and humidity in the fields and in the air, transmit the information to a satellite, which then relays it back to the drone, and the drone automatically carries out operations such as spraying. This not only saves labor but is also more precise and environmentally friendly.
⟦NL> Agricultural informatization was a highlight of this year's agricultural trade fair. In front of the booth for the overall “smart agriculture” solution, Huang Zujun, head of agricultural Internet of Things at Zhejiang Top Instrument Co., Ltd., introduced the whole process of crops from planting to harvesting and then to sales, including smart planting in the fields, “smart harvesting” by agricultural machinery using GPS technology and geographic information system technology, end-to-end food safety traceability, and consumers placing orders online.
Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing…… What was once rustic agriculture has begun to become fashionable. Informatization not only drives changes in agricultural production methods but also profoundly changes the way agricultural products are consumed. According to statistics, China has screened out 310 agricultural Internet of Things achievements, involving monitoring of the “four conditions” of crops, protected agriculture, livestock and aquaculture, agricultural machinery operation scheduling, and the quality and safety of agricultural products, and the annual transaction volume of agricultural products e-commerce has exceeded 50 billion yuan.
Vice Minister of Agriculture Chen Xiaohua said that informatization is the commanding height of modern agriculture. It is necessary to accelerate the advancement of bringing information into villages and households and the agricultural Internet of Things pilot and demonstration projects, promote the open sharing of information resources, vigorously develop agricultural e-commerce, and drive the development of agricultural informatization.
Cooperatives + Leading Enterprises: New Agricultural Business Entities Are More Active
Zhouzhi kiwifruit, crisp and sweet Tongchuan apples, fragrant and glutinous Yulin Dingbian potatoes, Ankang ecological selenium-rich agricultural products…… The reporter learned from the Shaanxi Famous, Special and Excellent Agricultural Products Promotion Conference that the producers and operators of these products are mainly farmers' cooperatives, leading enterprises and other new agricultural business entities, who actively expand the market and have become the most active exhibitors.
“In the past, farmers grew apples according to their own experience; now, through cooperatives, ecological planting techniques such as the application of organic fertilizer are promoted, and the apples have high water content and high sweetness.” Zhang Wei, an exhibitor for Yiyuan Red SOD apples and chairman of the Xinke Agricultural Technology Service Professional Cooperative in Yiyuan County, Shandong Province, told reporters that Yiyuan Red apples sell for about 10 yuan per jin, effectively driving up farmers' incomes.
It is understood that at present, China has 1.21 million legally registered farmers' cooperatives, 877,000 family farms, and more than 120,000 leading enterprises.
“Farmers' professional cooperatives, together with rural community collective economic organizations, various agricultural socialized service organizations and agricultural leading enterprises, constitute a multi-level operating service system for agricultural production.” Zhang Xiaoshan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that it is necessary to promote innovation in various forms of agricultural operation, develop appropriately scaled agricultural operations, and blaze a path of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics.