Zhang Qiming, a fish farmer in Xigang village, Yuyue township, Deqing county, east China’s
Zhejiang province, shows the fish in his fish pond in front of the camera with a big smile.
(Photo/Courtesy of the information center of Deqing county)
Zhang Qiming, a snakehead fish farmer in Xigang village, Yuyue township, Deqing county, east
China’s Zhejiang province, has achieved an increase in fish yield because of a “digital fish”, or an
artificial intelligence (AI) underwater robot.
The “digital fish”, with a length of no more than 50 cm, is a small oval device equipped with
various sensors. It can help monitor in real time the condition of fish ponds through the Internet of
Things (IoT), according to Zhang.
After putting the “digital fish” into his fish pond and logging in to his account on a mobile app, he
can get real-time data on many environmental factors indicating the condition of the fish pond,
such as dissolved oxygen in water, pH, and water temperature, and conduct many activities
including accurately providing feed for fish and routine inspection as the device provides a
panoramic virtual display of the fish pond, Zhang disclosed.
“Thanks to the ‘digital fish’ developed by a research institute, my fish ponds have seen higher
yield,” Zhang said.
The research institute Zhang mentioned is one established in Sanlin village, Yuyue township by a
research team from Zhejiang University for the application of digital technologies in rural areas in
2019.
Successful practices of the institute have been incorporated into a report released by the Center for
Informatization Study, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as typical cases of digital
technologies empowering rural economy.
Today, more and more living examples of digital technologies boosting rural economy are seen in
Deqing county, including the Tsingsky Mogan Mountain Urban Agricultural Park, an urban
agriculture complex featuring smart vegetable factory, which has been put into production in the
county.
The vegetable factory of the project, which includes functional zones for production, intelligent
management and control, seedling cultivation, and storage of equipment, mainly produces a kind
of thin-skinned tomato.
“Smart technologies used for management and control of our vegetable factory can effectively
reduce production cost and improve the quality and yield of products. It’s estimated that the
annual output of our factory can exceed one million kilograms, 30 to 50 times that achieved
through traditional agricultural production mode,” said an executive of the company running the
vegetable factory.
In recent years, Deqing has actively promoted the in-depth integration of digital technologies into
the real economy in rural areas, and constantly driven the emergence of new business forms and
models as well as new drivers of economic growth, for which Deqing county has won the
honorary title of “national model county in promoting the development of agriculture and rural
areas through digital technologies”.
Meanwhile, digital technologies and e-commerce have also benefited the production and sale of
agricultural products in Deqing county, making farming more profitable for local residents.
Chen Zhongliang, a farmer in Yuyue township, is one of the local farmers who have reaped the
fruits of digital technologies and e-commerce.
Chen started to run a farm after he graduated from college. As the size of his business grew, the
sale of his products became a headache for Chen.
Just when Chen couldn’t figure out a solution to his problem, the research institute in Sanlin
village launched a training project in 2019, aiming to cultivate rural talents for agricultural
innovation by providing training courses on knowledge about digital economy, innovative
thinking, and systematic operation and management of live-streaming and short-video platforms.
Chen immediately signed up for the training, which helped him find the answer to his problem.
In addition, with the help of the new delivery model jointly developed by the government of
Yuyue township, express companies, and e-commerce platforms, the online and offline sales of
Chen’s products have increased significantly. Last year, the man saw the sales volume of his farm
surpass four million yuan (about $617,200).
Efforts to accelerate digital transformation in rural areas of China should be focused on two
aspects, according to Jiang Qiping, director of the Center for Informatization Study.
On the one hand, China needs to improve and upgrade its digital infrastructure and promote the
popularization of relevant facilities in rural areas, and on the other hand, the country should pool
the strength of various parties to improve rural workers’ digital literacy through systematic
training, so as to enable farmers to truly take part in the development of the digital era, Jiang said.
