High-tech aids spring farming in Jinan amid epidemic

Technologies are being widely used in spring farming in Jinan, East China's Shandong province amid COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.

"It's great, I can watch the wheat grow through an app on my phone while sitting at home," said Zhao Jian, manager of a family farm in Jinan's Changqing district.

The app provides agricultural monitoring services, accurate weather services, and online classroom teaching. With the app, Zhao can monitor the more than 700 mu (46.66 hectares) of wheat fields at any time.

An additional 10,000 mu of winter wheat was recently put under smart agricultural management amid the epidemic

The smart farming system uses satellite remote sensing to observe crops and collects data by doppler infrared light, which can provide help with managing, spraying, and irrigating the fields.

At Anzipo village, Jiyang district, two pesticide spraying machines are being used in the wheat growing area. The two machines, aided by two people, were able to weed the village's entire 1,400 mu of wheat in just two days.

The scallion mechanization project is also progressing smoothly at the scallion-growing area in Zhangqiu district, which plays a key role in agricultural revitalization in Jinan.

Affected by the epidemic, many workers are unable to come to work at the greenhouse. To supply farmers with seedlings in time, Han Fangtian, manager of the seedling base in Zhangqiu district, purchased three automatic seeders and set up irrigators at every greenhouse.

The seedling base has more than 60 greenhouses with an annual production of more than 10 million seedlings, which are all supplied to local farmers.

In addition, to help farmers buy agricultural supplies, some agricultural supply companies in Jinan also launched noncontact planting services.

Farmers can reserve agricultural supplies online, such as fertilizers, pesticides, and seedlings, and then choose places to receive the products without having to worry about any human-to-human contact.