Smart farms generate wealth for rural households in Huzhou, E China's Zhejiang

Since 2021, Huzhou city in east China's Zhejiang Province has been working on building farms that use digital technologies and smart facilities to contribute to the country's rural vitalization drive, bringing wealth to local farmers.

Photo shows a smart farm in Lyushan township, Changxing county, Huzhou city, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo/Xu Zhen)

The city proposed building 100 smart farms at city level over five years in 2021, and now has the largest number of provincial-level smart farms in Zhejiang. Currently, these farms at city-level in Huzhou involve 7,097 rural households, raising the total income by over 45 million yuan (about $6.6 million).

One crab farming cooperative in Hongqiao town, Changxing county of Huzhou is among the first batch of city-level smart farms. It is equipped with a digital crab farming system, electric lawn mowers, and drones for feeding the crabs.

"Thanks to these new facilities, the amount of pesticide we use now has been slashed by more than 90 percent," explained an executive of the cooperative. "Each household that works with the cooperative earns an extra of 800 to 1,200 yuan per mu."

Photo shows a smart farm in Nanxun district, Huzhou city, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo/Xu Zhen)

“These farms feature a high-standard intelligent agricultural mode, have higher production efficiency, and can bring more wealth to more farmers," said an official of the bureau of agriculture and rural affairs of Huzhou.

Similarly, an automatic feeding system has replaced the conventional method of feeding sheep at a farm in Lyushan township, Changxing county. "The electric spreader reduces the time used by more than half, and can therefore increase the income of the farmers," said Jiang Shuxing, a manager of the farm. The farm provides job opportunities for over 50 households living nearby, and helps raise some sheep for 20 households that had been incapable of work, generating over 100,000 yuan for each household per year.

Photo shows a cultivation base of an intelligent crab farming cooperative in Hongqiao town, Changxing county, Huzhou city, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo/Xu Zhen)