Decreasing stocks of arable land stand in stark contrast to the growing agricultural demands. So how should the farming community deal with this problem? CCTV's Shi Wenjing visits a digital farm in Shanghai where everything is handled by automation.
Have you ever imagined the future of farmland? It may soon look like where I am standing. You can’t even find soil here. The plants’ roots stand in a nutritious liquid. Each plant has its own communication system with the computer deciding when to water, fertilise, and ventilate.
Connected to these tubes, the plants receive care for the duration of their lives from seed to harvest. All of this is controlled by a centralized computer system. It is here that agriculture is entering the digital age. Manual labor is kept to a minimum to keep the digital farm running.
Chen Youxiang has worked as a farmer on traditional farmland for the past ten years. He has just joined this new generation of digital farm.
"I am very impressed by the lower workload. Also the plant disease and pests defense system is impressive. No pesticide or chemical fertilisers are used here. I learned a lot from professional researchers," Chen said.
The upgrade of the farm allowed Chen and other farmers to turn into industrial workers.
With everything controlled by the computer, the farm itself is much more efficient. The annual output here is 5 to 10 times that of ordinary land. Also, the digital system makes agriculture safer.
"The water purification system we designed for fertiliser enables raw water to reach the standard of national laboratory level three. We also make our own liquid organic fertiliser. It comes from agricultural waste after organic fermentation. All these liquid fertiliser will go directly to the greenhouses to feed the plants. It's a zero emission process," Li Lei, head of R&D, SHanghai Farmwin Agricultural Techonology Co., said.
Li Fuzhong and his team are behind digital agriculture and they have been researching the concept for the past sixteen years. He thinks the time is right to start an agricultural ecological revolution.
"Due to urbanisation, more people will live in cities. In the next ten to twenty years, there’ll be fewer farmers. We have to adapt to this change. Besides, with increasing demand from people, traditional ways of farming will no longer meet demand. We have been doing research on this for more than 10 years. In the foreseeable future, we’ll be able to build farmland anywhere which isn't determined by climate or location," Li said.
Apart from automation, Li and his team are also working on vertical farming. In the near future, plants will be handled by robots.
Working on the principal of environmental friendliness, all the materials used in the farm will be bio-degradable.