September 23 this year marked China's ninth "Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival." During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, China will strengthen support for agricultural science, technology, and equipment, raising the comprehensive mechanization rate of crop cultivation, planting, and harvesting to above 80%. As autumn harvest arrives, reporters visited fields, warehouses, and workshops to observe how various regions are focusing on key scenarios and leveraging intelligent equipment to improve quality and efficiency, turning traditional autumn harvest into a smart and bountiful one. — Editor's Note

Zaoyang, Hubei — "Driving straight lines and controlling spacing, with row spacing errors kept at the centimeter level"

During autumn harvest season, the rice fields glow golden. In the morning, as dew just evaporated from the rice paddies of Qifang Town in Zaoyang City, Hubei Province, Tian Hui drove his harvester into the field. "We can harvest an average of 60 mu per day, harvesting cleanly and with precision," Tian Hui said. Tian Hui is a machine operator at the Shunhui Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative in Zaoyang City, and the secret to his efficient work lies in the cab of that harvester. "This is the Beidou intelligent terminal for the harvester," Tian Hui said, pointing to a box installed in front of the control panel. "During operation, after inputting data, it can guide us in real time to drive straight lines and control spacing, with row spacing errors kept at the centimeter level."

The Shunhui Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative was established in 2010. "At the very beginning, we only had 3 agricultural machines," recalled Shen Hui, head of the cooperative. Due to low horsepower, limited intelligence, and heavy workloads, during busy farming seasons the entire team often worked around the clock for over ten days. With the implementation of national agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policies, Shen Hui took the lead in upgrading equipment, and members followed suit in purchasing new machines. Today, the cooperative owns 156 various types of agricultural machinery and tools. Walking into the cooperative's dispatch center, the large screen covering the entire wall displays the trajectories of agricultural machines at a glance. "All agricultural machines are equipped with Beidou intelligent terminals connected to the smart agricultural machinery system management platform," Shen Hui said. "In the past, we only carried out wheat harvesting operations. Now for crops such as rice and rapeseed, we can provide full-process mechanized services from plowing to planting, and from management to harvesting." By the end of 2025, Zaoyang City's total agricultural machinery power reached 1.9336 million kilowatts, with over 2,300 Beidou agricultural machinery operation monitoring terminals installed, and the comprehensive mechanization rate of major crop cultivation, planting, and harvesting reaching 92.5%.

Hengyang, Hunan — "Training exclusive drying curve models for over 20 rice varieties"

In Hengyang County, Hunan Province, trucks loaded with rice were queuing to enter in front of Jiaoshan Rice Industry Co., Ltd. "This is one of the largest raw grain drying centers in Hunan Province, processing 6,000 tons of raw grain per day." Entering the factory area, Qiu Suyun, head of the marketing department at Jiaoshan Rice Industry, introduced that the entire process of testing, drying, and storage is connected to the "Big Horned Frog Smart Grain System." Liao Libao, a major grain grower from the Hengdong Hongyang Planting and Breeding Professional Cooperative, transported freshly harvested rice from the previous night here and handed it over to the production line. The visual recognition system quickly completed a three-dimensional model of the vehicle-mounted grain and then randomly generated sampling points. "Based on appearance alone, the system can intelligently identify more than 20 mainstream rice varieties grown by nearby farmers," said Peng Jiaowen, vice president of Jiaoshan Rice Industry. Cameras conduct 360-degree high-precision scanning of rice from 3 angles, and dozens of features that are difficult for the naked eye to easily distinguish — such as grain shape, husk texture, and glume tip shape — all serve as the system's benchmarks. After testing is completed, the wet grain is transported to the unloading area. "From the moment testing is completed, the destination of the rice has already been determined," Peng Jiaowen said. Behind the unloading port, 180 wet grain silos store the collected rice separately according to indicators such as variety and moisture. Through pipelines, 92 dryers and 132 dry grain silos are connected to them. "If rice with different moisture levels is mixed together using the same drying temperature curve, it is not only prone to uneven drying, but also likely to lose weight, freshness, and taste," Peng Jiaowen said. The smart grain system has an automatic silo allocation function and "one variety, one drying" management. Relying on 24,000 sensors and 260 programmable control modules in the workshop to collect real-time data across the entire chain, it generates optimal drying plans. "Since the gradual application of the smart grain system in 2023, the system has iterated year after year and has now entered version 3.0," Peng Jiaowen said. "On the basis of training exclusive drying curve models for more than 20 rice varieties, the system intelligently adjusts parameters to achieve variable-temperature drying, increasing the rice yield rate by 1% and the head rice rate by more than 3% compared with last year's previous-generation system."

Xiaoshan, Zhejiang — "From transportation to storage, AI is used throughout"

Xu Jianxiang, a major grain grower living in Yinong Town, Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, planted 340 mu of late rice. In previous grain harvest seasons he was busy running around, but this year he has had much less to worry about. "From transportation to storage, AI (artificial intelligence) is used throughout, which is very convenient." Xu Jianxiang took out his phone and opened the "Xiaoliang Purchase and Sales" public account. After making an appointment, he only needed to deliver the wet grain to the drying service point, and he did not need to worry about the subsequent process. "In the past, after grain was dried at the service station, it still had to be sent to grain depot stations to queue for purchase," said Zhao Binjie, deputy general manager of Xiaoshan Grain Purchase and Sales Company. The "Xiaoliang One-Stop Service" AI system can plan the optimal locations online for farmers based on real-time data. Each grain depot can also rely on algorithms to automatically complete vehicle diversion, berth pre-allocation, and staggered equipment scheduling, increasing the average transportation efficiency of grain depots in Xiaoshan District by 30%. In the sunshine quality inspection room, dried rice samples have their own "ID cards." After inspection personnel read the information through a barcode scanner, a dedicated file is immediately generated in the sunshine quality inspection information system of the "Zhejiang Grain Depot" digital collaborative application platform for food security. The tall flat warehouse grain depot can hold 6,925 tons of rice and is equipped with AI technology internally. Through technical means such as image recognition and direct collection of grain temperature via the Internet of Things, key values such as humidity, temperature, and nitrogen content inside the grain depot can all be uploaded to the cloud in real time. During the critical period of collection and storage, drones equipped with various sensors undertake multiple tasks including depot area patrols, warehouse roof inspections, and auxiliary detection of gas concentration inside warehouses. Data is transmitted back to the "Zhejiang Grain Depot" platform, and through AI analysis, staff can immediately locate and mark suspicious points in the footage, then rush to the site for verification and handling, forming a three-dimensional inspection model of human-machine complementarity and achieving 24-hour real-time monitoring of dynamic changes in grain and depots. At present, the business of the "Zhejiang Grain Depot" platform has covered 232 collection and storage enterprises across the province, with networked access to more than 590 depot sites and 6,750 warehouses, connecting the data links of grain collection, storage, transportation, and management.

Hunchun, Jilin — "Judging quality now has a 'sharp eye'"

By the Tumen River, golden waves of rice rolled layer upon layer. These days, Cui Yuanhao has been busy nonstop, inspecting fields and checking the factory, doing sufficient preparation to welcome the rice harvest. "We hope for a bumper harvest, and even more for increased income." As the head of Jilin Hunchun Forest Mountain Agriculture Co., Ltd., Cui Yuanhao is very confident in the factory's automated processing production line. "From dehulling, husked rice separation, color sorting, polishing to vacuum packaging, rice is fully completed by mechanical automation, and now we are moving toward intelligence." Stopping in front of a medium-sized machine, with the roar of machinery accompanied by gusts of wind, dehulled rice rolled down from the upper part inside the machine. Rice with normal color entered the next process, while a small amount of darker or duller rice was blown out by the machine's sorting. "This is an intelligent color sorter. Photoelectric equipment accurately identifies the color of rice, so judging quality now has a 'sharp eye,'" Cui Yuanhao introduced. The processing plant, covering nearly 10,000 square meters, has a daily processing capacity of 150 tons, five times that before renovation and upgrading. During processing, generally only 3 people are needed: one to watch the raw materials, one to manage the machines, and one to monitor the finished products. The upgraded production line can not only produce traditional rice, but also products such as germ rice and brown rice. In recent years, Jilin Province has continued to promote smart agriculture. With policy support, in 2023 Cui Yuanhao's enterprise carried out comprehensive upgrading and renovation, incorporating automated and intelligent design, driving simultaneous improvement in benefits. In 2025, the enterprise's revenue increased by 20% year on year.