The 3rd Sichuan Agricultural Expo Showcases Novel, High-Tech, Cutting-Edge Modern Agriculture

“Smart mushroom growing cabinet” grows mushrooms with no manual management needed.

Sweet potatoes growing in the air.

A pesticide-spraying drone worth more than 100,000 yuan.

Multi-layer hydroponic vegetable cultivation can effectively save water.

The Huaxi visitor group signed up enthusiastically, and hundreds of photographers sent in exciting moments from the Agricultural Expo

Space pumpkins “face off” against giant sweet potatoes, kiwifruit “meets” red pomegranate, and a 1400-jin “Zhu Bajie” is on hand to cheer them on... On November 19, the 3rd Sichuan Agricultural Expo and Chengdu International Urban Modern Agriculture Expo opened with great fanfare at the Chengdu New Century Global Center.

This Agricultural Expo “took over” 9 major exhibition halls of the New Century Global Center, with an exhibition area of 105,000 sq m, the largest scale in the history of Sichuan's agricultural expos, and the exhibition period will run until November 23. Most importantly, admission for citizens is entirely free.

On the opening day alone, thousands of citizens “rushed to the market” at the Agricultural Expo. Buy premium Thai jasmine rice, taste French estate red wine, purchase Icelandic deep-sea cod, watch authentic Muay Thai performances, experience a journey back to the Han Dynasty, and even come face to face with a 2-meter giant crocodile... A feast of distinctive agriculture has begun. Can you still hold yourself back?

High: Chengdu-made spraying drone is easier to operate than a remote-control plane

“Wow, it looks like a flying monster from Transformers.” At 11 a.m. on the 19th, inside the Sichuan Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Hall in Hall 4 of the Agricultural Expo, many citizens were lining up to take photos with several drones of different sizes.

“They are not only futuristic in design, but also very useful.” On-site staff introduced that this is an eight-rotor agricultural plant protection drone independently developed in Chengdu, using high-efficiency brushless motors as power, with an effective payload of up to 20 kg. Supported by high-capacity lithium batteries, the drone's maximum flight time can reach 25 minutes, and one flight can spray 5 mu of farmland. At this rate, if the drone works 8 hours a day, excluding spraying and takeoff/landing time, it can fly 32 times a day, spraying about 160 mu of farmland, equivalent to the workload of 8 people hand-spraying for 1 week. At the same time, it can automatically hover and wait for rescue in abnormal situations such as signal loss.

“If it can be widely promoted and used, it will change the traditional situation of farmers carrying pesticides and spraying little by little in the fields. It not only reduces farmers' workload, but also ensures that every piece of land can be evenly sprayed with the pesticide.” The staff member said that operating the drone is not difficult, even simpler in principle than operating a remote-control toy plane, and an ordinary farmer generally needs only one day of training to learn how to operate it.

In this exhibition hall with an area of 700 sq m, there are quite a few companions of the drone. For example, solar water-lifting units, agricultural remote-sensing aircraft, light-energy-driven agricultural machinery, automatic filling equipment and other advanced agricultural equipment are all on display one by one.

It is reported that at present, the main grain crops in demonstration areas such as Guanghan, Pixian, Luxian and Renshou in our province have basically achieved fully mechanized operations for plowing, sowing, fertilizing, plant protection, harvesting, drying and the entire process.

New: A domestically pioneered aerial sweet potato, one seedling can be harvested for three to five years

You may have seen digging sweet potatoes from the ground, but have you ever seen picking sweet potatoes by looking up? Even more amazing is that this kind of sweet potato is not a single crop per year; instead, one seedling is planted and can be harvested continuously for three to five years.

In the Sichuan Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Hall, from a distance you can see strings of “red lanterns” hanging in the air. Those are sweet potato roots and stems connected to vines. This aerial sweet potato uses the growth characteristics of sweet potato and its closely related species, and uses grafting technology to block photosynthates from being transported to the underground root system, instead accumulating in the aboveground part, forming aerial sweet potatoes through pressure induction. The technology is a domestic and international first, and has obtained 2 patents in China.

Li Ming, a researcher at the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, introduced that aerial sweet potatoes have three characteristics. First, they are cultivated in soil in the air, with low cost and convenient management; second, the upside-down hanging growth method makes the roots grow upward, increasing ornamental value; third, as long as a sweet potato variety can be cultivated in soil anywhere in the world, it can rely on this

technology for aerial cultivation, “and aerial sweet potatoes are generally higher than ordinary underground sweet potatoes in vitamin content and other aspects.”

Li Ming said that sweet potatoes are planted in flower pots and suspended in the air. When the root system matures and the sweet potatoes are ready to harvest, you only need to take down the flower pot and cut off the sweet potato roots and stems that we want to harvest. After putting the flower pot back on, the vines can continue to produce sweet potatoes. Moreover, under reasonable cultivation conditions, the plant lifespan of aerial sweet potatoes can be extended to 3 to 5 years, and they can be harvested every year. Each upright growing point can produce more than 5 kg of sweet potatoes.

Odd: A 1400-jin ecological fat pig does not eat feed but eats microorganisms

Have you ever seen a pig weighing 1400 jin? On the first day of the Agricultural Expo, the Nanchong Hall in Hall 2 was packed with people, and everyone held up their phones to aim at a huge creature inside an iron cage.

“How can there be such a big pig?” “Did it eat hormones or additives?” “Can it even run?” Amid their surprise, some people pushed through the crowd and found staff in the hall to satisfy their curiosity.

When the reporter came closer to look, inside a cage nearly 3 m high, a pig nearly 2 m long was sleeping on a thick bedding similar to rice grain. Its skin was fair and clean, and its fine hair felt soft all over. It rarely got up and looked very “lazy.” Some citizens reached in and poked its body, and someone else pulled its ear. It suddenly raised its head, turned in another direction, and lay down again.

“This pig weighs 1400 jin.” Gong Dongfu, general manager of Nanchong Laida Ecological Technology Co., Ltd., said that it usually stands up and walks around, moves agilely, and is fat but not clumsy. “Actually, it is just an ordinary pig breed, except that it eats microorganisms.” Gong Dongfu explained that this pig is a test subject of the company's “extreme feeding,” and the company has more than 40 “extreme pigs” in total. The heaviest one was raised for more than 5 years and weighed more than 1600 jin.

Different from ordinary pig feeding methods, these test pigs eat grain degraded by microorganisms, drink microbial degradation bacterial liquid, and sleep on a microbial degradation mattress 50 cm thick. Because beneficial bacteria among the microorganisms are used to kill harmful bacteria, the pigs get sick less often, or even do not get sick at all. “Compared with pigs of the same age, its physique is stronger and younger.” Gong Dongfu said with a smile that the meat of this kind of pig tastes fatty but not greasy, lean but not tough, and the market price is 30 yuan per jin.

Fun: Thai male star heats up the scene, anime cosplay invites you to take photos

As one of the series of commemorative activities for the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Thailand, this Agricultural Expo set Thailand as the theme country. Thai enterprises brought jasmine rice, tropical fruits and other specialty agricultural products full of “Thai” flavor. The Thailand Pavilion spared no expense, not only occupying the most prime geographical location among foreign pavilions and displaying a large number of exhibits, but also inviting on the opening day Thailand's popular young actor Witwisit Hiranyawongkul (Pchy), who played the male lead “Mew” in The Love of Siam, to support the event on site.

With warm lighting, pink and white gauze curtains, and a giant “Thai Kitchen” poster on the backdrop, Pchy slowly walked onto the stage amid the screams of many fans. He wore a blue long-sleeved shirt, dark tight jeans, and a pair of red sneakers. After coming on stage, he put his hands together and bowed to the audience. A single “Sawaddee Ka” made fans inside and outside the venue scream. His handsome and sweet smile and lively, relaxed songs made men and women, old and young, stop to watch, and the venue was full of excitement. During the event, Pchy even picked up a selfie stick and took a big selfie with the dense crowd of spectators below the stage.

“ bounty hunter, Katarina... aren't these all characters from League of Legends?” Near Hall 3, many young citizens noticed several “familiar” girls. At their invitation, everyone hurried forward to take photos with these game cosplayers. It turned out that a fruit and vegetable exhibition hall in Hall 3 had specially invited cosplay performers to support the event, combining modern agriculture with technology and fashion elements.