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The world needs to increase sustainable food production to support a growing population cost-effectively. Yet farmers face a number of hurdles. Large amounts of marginal or depleted land cannot be cultivated economically using traditional methods, while urban migration has led to labour shortages in many agricultural areas.

In response to these challenges, ZTE and China Mobile used 5G connectivity to fully automate rice production on 12,000 acres of marginal land near Da¡¯an City, Jilin Province. A smart irrigation system is helping to make the depleted soil fertile again, while remote controlled machinery and drones have made the farm operations more efficient, productive and sustainable.

The first domestic 5G smart agriculture project for saline and alkaline land

China Mobile and ZTE have pioneered the concept of 5G "unitized" unmanned farm in saline and alkaline land for the project. It marks the first domestic 5G smart agriculture project in saline and alkaline land, offering full view, full scene, full process and full cost advantages through 5G technology. The project harnessed 5G remote driving + 5G smart irrigation technology to continuously detect pH and ESP values of paddy fields, realizing ecological restoration of saline and alkaline land as well as paddy land, achieving economic benefits. Notably, the implementation included a suite of 5G technologies, including 5G unmanned plowing, 5G unmanned rice planting, 5G unmanned field patrol, 5G unmanned harvesting and more. These technologies have been integrated with China Mobile's "AICDE," which enables a full life cycle digital intelligent management for agricultural production, featuring "Change. Tillage. Planting. Management. Harvesting."

5G unmanned farms deliver remarkable economic gains

Since the project's initiation in 2021, the development of 5G unitized unmanned farms has witnessed remarkable growth, expanding from 2 to 10. Meanwhile, the results of saline-alkali ecological restoration has expanded from 70,000 mu to 200,000 mu, realizing an annual output value of 110,000 tons of rice with direct economic benefits reaching more than10 million RMB.

Moving forward, ZTE is committed to further strengthening collaboration with industrial partners in the realms of digital intelligence empowering agriculture. The focus will be on achieving a profound integration of 5G technology with primary industry technology innovation and practical applications, aiming to deliver increased direct economic value to the fundamental aspects of people's lives.

ZTE, in partnership with China Mobile, has been honored with GSMA Foundry 5G Monetisation Excellence Award for their collaborative achievement in the "Smart Agri - 5G Automated Farming Solutions" project during MWC Barcelona 2024. This accolade marks the second recognition for the project, following its win of the GSMA Foundry Excellence Award in 2023.