China's Shandong uses smart tech to secure wheat harvest

Agricultural technicians in east China's Shandong Province started employing small equipment such as drones and unmanned vehicles to grow their fields in the current key stage for wheat growing.

Zhang Tong, a large-scale grain producer in Shandong's Jinan, uses a drone equipped with a multispectral image sensor for real-time data collection of winter wheat growth conditions. This cutting-edge method facilitates extensive field inspection, achieving a daily coverage of over 5,000 mu (about 333 hectares) of fields.

Meanwhile, technicians remotely control an unmanned vehicle equipped with a multispectral camera for high-precision monitoring in fields with weaker seedling conditions.

These large-scale grain producers expect to use these intelligent agricultural technologies to improve field inspection efficiency and secure a strong harvest.

"Previously, manually inspecting wheat fields could cover only 500 to 600 mu in a day, demonstrating low efficiency and an inability to detect problems promptly. A multispectral drone can survey about 1,500 mu of land in one hour through the integrated air-ground approach. This is supported by precise feedback and analysis from an unmanned field monitoring vehicle. With this system, areas with problems can be promptly identified, enabling precise management to prevent crop yield reduction due to delayed interventions," Zhang said.

"Large-scale grain growers first employ a multispectral drone for extensive field inspection, marking key areas and identifying problems. Subsequently, a multispectral unmanned vehicle is dispatched from the base to the site with problems, equipped with a multispectral camera to gather information and images. These images are then transmitted back to our backend system for intelligent analysis and assessment, culminating in a tailored solution that is relayed to the large-scale grain growers. Based on this feedback, the growers carry out targeted actions such as fertilization, pesticide application, and irrigation," said Zheng Jie, an agricultural technician.

Since the jointing-booting stage is critical for yield formation and field management in the current spring wheat growing period, local agricultural technicians are conducting on-site technical guidance for farmers to lay the foundation for summer grain harvests.

China and the European Union (EU) are in consultations on the price undertakings concerning Chinese electric vehicles, He Yadong, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said at a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.

"China and the EU are currently engaged in consultations regarding the electric vehicle case. China's principle and position have been consistent. We are willing to properly resolve differences with the EU through dialog and consultation and promote a holistic industry-wide solution. We hope that the EU will work with China in the same direction, earnestly implement the important consensus reached at the China-EU Summit and demonstrate genuine sincerity. On the basis of the efforts made so far, we should resolve the issue as soon as possible through dialog and consultation, address the reasonable concerns of both sides, and foster an open and stable market environment for the development of China and the EU's industries," he said.