Rudong county, Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, has piloted its first fully automated farm in Shilidun village.

So far this year, autonomous agricultural machinery has been used throughout the entire farming process on 200 mu (13.33 hectares) of wheat fields on the farm.

The automation is made possible through modern agricultural information technology such as new-generation internet of things, big data, and driverless technology.

Before it begins operating, a high-precision digital map of the farm will be imported into a system, which will automatically generate a complete path for machinery to harvest.

"We have installed a set of automatic driving equipment on the harvester that depends on the Beidou navigation satellite system,” said Lu Haitao, who is in charge of the farm. "The harvester is capable of accuracy down to 2.5 centimeters."

Autonomous machinery has greatly raised farming efficiency and cut labor costs.

According to Lu, agricultural machinery can work 24 hours a day and will reduce labor by 20 to 25 percent.

In addition, a visualization platform in the farm’s control center allows users to observe the growth status of crops and analyze data related to weather conditions and soil quality. Such information will aid in irrigation, fertilization, and pest control during the crop growth period.

The statistics provided by the farm show that the farm this year is expected to yield 600 kilograms of wheat per mu.

A harvester seen in the farm. [Photo/Nantong Daily]