"It's so cool that sci-tech is helping agriculture!" This was one of the frequent comments heard from visitors watching the precision agriculture aviation team of Shandong University of Technology (SDUT) give a demonstration on an agricultural sci-tech cooperation demonstration day.

The event, held in Ningxia, was a collaboration between Shandong province and Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

Intelligent agricultural machinery was the theme of this year's event between the two regions. Through sci-tech cooperation, they have improved the rate of agricultural mechanization and reduced production costs. A total of 48 agricultural sci-tech innovations from Shandong were displayed at the demonstration.

Self-developed intelligent system

When the command button is switched on, a coaxial double-paddle drone takes to the air. It is powered by eight rotor blades, and can support an 80 kg payload. This is the latest sci-tech innovation, called a large load electric powered plant protection drone, created by the precision agricultural aviation team led by Lan Yubin. Lan is a special assistant to the president of SDUT and dean of the university's College of Agricultural Engineering and Food Science. The drone is designed as a crop spraying vehicle.

"We independently developed the drone software operating system and visual recognition system, which deeply integrates the professional-grade flight control system and the autonomous spray control system. In particular, the drone can adapt to different planting patterns thanks to the design in agronomic integration of the spray rod," said Lan.

Focusing on the two major directions of precision agriculture aviation and ecological unmanned farms, Lan's team has carried out scientific research in Shandong, and the results have been a great success.

Agricultural machinery with broad applications

According to statistics, there are more than 80,000 agricultural machinery manufacturing enterprises in China. However, there are only 1,700 up-scale agricultural machinery enterprises, and small and medium-sized enterprises account for more than 80 percent.

"Although the intelligent agricultural machinery market is in its infancy, the market potential is huge, and agricultural machinery industrial parks are concentrated in Shandong, Henan, Hunan and other provinces," said Shang Shuqi, director of the Academic Committee of Qingdao Agricultural University, and academic dean of the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.

According to the data of the China Business Industry Research Institute, China's smart agriculture market size reached 86.863 billion RMB in 2022, an increase of about 26.81 percent, and it is expected to exceed 100 billion RMB in 2024.

Win-win cooperation

Ningxia Science and Technology Department, Ningxia Agriculture and Rural Affairs Department, together with the SDUT, Shandong Oaks Animal Husbandry and Seed Industry Co., Ltd. and other universities as well as research institutions, have jointly implemented sci-tech cooperation projects, such as intelligent agricultural machinery development, and efficient planting of vegetables in protected agriculture.

Liu Changqing, president of Ningxia Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, said with the support of Shandong Agricultural University and Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the college has established an agricultural sci-tech innovation system with obvious regional characteristics, forming 11 major disciplines and 43 research fields.

Since the science and technology departments of the two regions signed the framework agreement of cooperation in 2017, Shandong and Ningxia have worked hand in hand in industrial cooperation and talent exchange, building a solid partnership.

"We will strive to provide a new stage for talent exchanges, and try to provide more opportunities for Shandong's innovation subjects and experts to cooperate in Ningxia," said Sang Changqing, deputy director of Ningxia Science and Technology Department.