Alshaa intelligent agriculture project recognized

A project in the Alshaa Desert Grassland — Intelligent Management of Ecological Animal Husbandry — conducted under the auspices of Alshaa Left Banner in Alshaa League, Inner Mongolia autonomous region recently received national recognition.

It was selected and recommended as an outstanding case for national intelligent agriculture development in 2022 and was one of 74 released by the Information Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The project has been in research and development since 2000. Responding to the special landscape characteristics of Alshaa League and the needs of its herders, it has developed technical equipment, including an intelligent grazing system and an intelligent drinking water system.

The core system for intelligent grazing applies internet and satellite positioning technology to animal husbandry.

Using internet technology, herd location information, movement and other information are connected to monitoring equipment to realize intelligent identification, positioning, tracking, monitoring and management.

It can identify remote grazing areas while providing automatic statistics, a real-time grasp of pasture information and timely acquisition of unusual and abnormal conditions. Decision-making controls are also provided.

To date, more than 500 herders in Alshaa have used more than 2,000 sets of Beidou positioning equipment. The number of camels managed through intelligent grazing is now about 30,000.

According to calculations, compared with the same period last year, camel herders can save more than 50 percent of grazing time and grazing costs of at least 5,000 yuan ($729) per year. The project has been extended to other areas of Inner Mongolia, as well as to Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

Smart drinking water technology uses a network and monitoring camera, as well as induction, automatic detection and remote-control technology, to automate the management of electric water extraction.

The technology began to be developed and promoted in farming and pastoral areas in 2015. So far, more than 1,000 smart drinking water devices have been installed for farmers and herders.