The Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region recently unveiled progress in its “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Plus Agriculture” initiative. Today, smart agriculture has now been effectively implemented across various stages, including production, equipment, and supervision, injecting strong digital momentum into high-quality agricultural development.
Guangxi has established a comprehensive smart agriculture ecosystem. On the production front, the 5G smart rice industrial park in Quanzhou county achieves 90 percent accuracy in pest forecasting through AI-based weather monitoring, while Rongxian county’s pomelo base uses AI drones for nighttime pesticide application.
Photo shows mulberry fields, where smart monitoring is ensured, in Yizhou district, Hechi, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo/Yu Xiangquan)
On the equipment side, the region’s agricultural machinery information platform has connected 8,525 BeiDou terminals. During this year’s spring plowing season, 18,000 farm machines were fitted with BeiDou terminals, 4,000 were equipped with assisted-driving functions, and more than 11,000 agricultural drones were put into operation. Baise city alone trained more than 400 drone operators through over 20 training sessions.
For supervision and data management, China’s first smart livestock supervision platform enables full traceability from breeding to sales. More than 2,300 fishing vessels now carry BeiDou terminals, allowing real-time positioning and one-touch emergency alerts. A database system covering 39 subcategories under four major agricultural categories integrates six core data types, including water resources and meteorological information, providing robust decision-making support.
On the international front, Guangxi has promoted cooperation in intelligent water and fertilizer management between enterprises such as JJR Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd. and Vietnam. It established an “AI Plus Agriculture” exhibition zone at the China-ASEAN Expo, facilitating four cross-border cooperation projects, including China-Vietnam smart fishery initiative.
Six projects—including Lingshan county’s dairy buffalo initiative and Cangwu county’s tea project—have been approved as national digital agriculture innovation and application bases, receiving 115 million yuan (about $16.2 million) in central government funding. Six autonomous region-level pilot projects also received 6 million yuan in subsidies.
The 2025 Guangxi smart agriculture innovation competition attracted 239 entries from domestic and international participants, with 77 advancing to the finals. Finalists included teams from Huawei and the National University of Defense Technology, with outstanding projects set for implementation through a long-term mechanism.
(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
