Staff manage vegetable seedlings in the Fotang Vegetable Industrial Park in Yiwu on Feb 7. [Photo/Zhejiang Daily]

Smart agriculture technologies are revolutionizing the way vegetable seedlings are grown at the Fotang Vegetable Industry Park in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province.

The large-scale grower, Lin Xianwen, inspects the growth of digitized seedlings on-site every day.

"Here, the temperature of the seedlings can be controlled, so the seedlings will grow better," said Lin. Compared with traditional seedling cultivation techniques, digitized cultivation allows seedlings to grow more uniformly with a higher survival rate.

The new method allows for precise planting, visual management, and intelligent decision-making for seedling growth. The digitized process also increases planting density, resulting in a 40-percent growth in yield per square meter. 

Two farmers take a photo in the Fotang Vegetable Industrial Park in Yiwu. [Photo/Yiwu Media Center]

Fu Xihua, chief agricultural technician of Yiwu Agricultural Development Co, said: "Digitized seedling cultivation requires promoting germination and digitized germination to ensure the uniformity of the sprouts, as well as using machines to water and fertilize. And the humidity of the entire seedling block is more uniform, increasing the survival rate of the seedlings."

So far, the park has successfully grown 33.65 million vegetable seedlings of nine varieties, including cabbage, chili, eggplant, and tomato, using this technique.