A local farmer inserts a key card into the electric meter and presses a remote control to irrigate the fields. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

As the spring plowing and irrigation season begins, farmers in Houwang village, Lingcheng district of Dezhou, Shandong province, are experiencing a new level of convenience with specialized irrigation smart systems.

"By simply inserting a key card into the electric meter and pressing a remote control, we get easy access to irrigating the fields. This significantly reduces waiting times and lowers irrigation costs, enabling intelligent management and convenient control of wells," a local farmer in Lingcheng said.

To facilitate agricultural irrigation, Wang Mingshui, Party head of Houwang village, first established a planting cooperative before raising funds to build more transformers and adaptors for the power system, allowing the cooperative to become the first to adopt smart irrigation systems.

Since the implementation of the smart irrigation systems, over 140 households in the village have been served, irrigating an area of over 1,000 mu (66.7 hectares), covering more than 95 percent of the cultivated land in Houwang village.

"The efforts have brought better returns to local residents and made a significant contribution to rural vitalization," the farmer said.