Spring planting boosted by satellites, new agricultural tech

Seasonal stirrings

With temperatures recently rising, spring plowing and preparation of land is well underway across the country.

Winter wheat crops in Shandong province in the east and Hebei province in the north, have entered a key growth phase.

In southern Guangdong province, nearly half of the 871,333 hectares of early rice is ready for transplanting, while in Nanchang, in East China's Jiangxi province, early rice planting has begun across 130,666 hectares.

Temperatures have remained relatively low in Heilongjiang, but farmers have been busy preparing for spring plowing, and soaking and germinating seeds.

They are expecting yet another strong harvest this autumn.

In 2024, Heilongjiang saw its 21st consecutive bumper year, with a grain harvest of more than 80 million metric tons.

It was the first time the province's yield had exceeded 80 million, with Heilongjiang accounting for 11.3 percent of the country's total output. Its grain output has remained stable at over 75 million tons for 7 consecutive years, with the province ranking first in the country for 15 years in a row.

With a clean environment and the world's largest black soil area, Heilongjiang leads the nation in the amount of land devoted to planting rice, corn and soybeans, and boasts the highest annual yield of these crops.

Beidahuang is the name used to designate the fertile region including the Sanjiang Plain along the Heilong and Nenjiang rivers, in the north of Heilongjiang.

In recent years, the Beidahuang Group has worked hard on research and development of intelligent agricultural services.

The group has established 30 digital farm pilot programs and 14 smart agriculture demonstration bases.

It also deployed 11,000 agricultural sensors for intelligent seedling cultivation, intelligent water conservancy, intelligent fertilization and other agricultural applications.

Beidahuang has achieved a 99.7 percent mechanization rate on arable land and is making increasing use of advanced technology. Among the breakthroughs are a number of high-end intelligent agricultural tools, including an electric pneumatic planter.

The level of agricultural mechanization in Heilongjiang has reached 99.07 percent, ranking it first in the country.