Special corps on front line of agriculture in Xinjiang

High-tech farming

Zheng Chunlin is a 56-year-old farmer at the Communist Youth League Farm in Wujiaqu, a city built and administered by the Sixth Division of the corps.

He has recently had his hands full with family and work, looking after his sick 8-year-old daughter and hammering out a deal on farm machinery.

He couldn't physically irrigate his cotton fields, but they were tended to nonetheless.

A moisture sensor placed in the soil, along with temperature and humidity sensors, are activated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When the sensors detect a deficit in soil moisture, they send a message to Zheng.

"Now with a simple click of my mobile phone I can feed in the time and duration I want the cotton saplings to be watered by automatically activating the water pump," he said.

Huang Jianjun, deputy director of the city's economic development office, said the system, which began in 2009, is able to decide the amount and duration of water needed, based on the information it has gathered on the soil condition.