In Jin Dai Street, Qianhe Village of Liangping District, Chongqing, expansive rice paddies stretch out like a green sea. During the crucial growth stage of the rice plants, plant protection drones take to the skies, their rotors humming as they evenly spray fine pesticide mist deep into the crops.
"One day's work covers two to three hundred mu, equivalent to what ten people used to do," remarked Chang Jinfei, a drone operator calmly monitoring the flight path on his screen from the field ridge. The traditional summer management tasks, once done with spray tanks carried on shoulders and sweat soaking the fields, have now become efficient and effortless thanks to these "aerial plant protectors." In Liangping, from the flatland paddies to the bamboo forests on hills, drones are becoming the "new farming tools," redefining the millennia-old image of farming with one's face to the soil and back to the sky. Behind this lies a profound agricultural transformation, shifting from isolated operations to comprehensive empowerment, and from reliance on weather to data-driven farming.
The "Aerial Fleet" Soaring Over the Fields
Chang Jinfei's drone is just one stroke in Liangping's low-altitude agricultural landscape. Across this largest flatland in the Ba-Yu region, an "aerial fleet" weaves through fields and forests, quietly altering the rhythm of farming.
"We used to farm by instinct; now we look at screens, and the work is much more precise," said Li Shifei, head of the Chongqing Weiyuan Modern Agricultural Professional Cooperative. This spring, he invested 3.5 million yuan to upgrade his machinery, equipping 15 tractors and 10 rice transplanters with Beidou-assisted driving systems, reducing operational error to within 2.5 centimeters. This former five-star hotel chef has spent a decade transitioning from the kitchen to the fields. His cooperative now boasts 86 pieces of smart agricultural machinery, providing services across over ten provinces and cities, and coordinating up to a hundred machines during peak times. "We're like the 'Didi' for agricultural machinery," he joked.
Li Shifei also serves as a professional course instructor at the Smart Agriculture Industry College of Liangping Vocational Education Center, mentoring a group of "post-00s" youth chasing their dreams in the fields. His teaching splits time: one-third in the classroom, two-thirds in the fields. "Agricultural drone pilots can't just know how to operate a joystick; they must understand the crops," he noted. After accumulating over 200 flight hours, students can take on part-time roles in socialized services, earning commissions based on acreage. Xiao Yin, a 20-year-old student, became proficient at piloting drones in his second year and earned a substantial income in his first month of part-time work.
As drones' lifting capabilities grow stronger, pilots are no longer busy for just one season a year. The cooperative's young members follow the farming calendar across the country, from Guangxi to Jiangsu, Anhui to Xinjiang. "Who says farmers can't go on business trips?" Li Shifei said cheerfully. Currently, Liangping District has 322 agricultural drones and 210 professional pilots, the highest numbers in the city. The mechanization rate for rice planting has reached 90.18%, also ranking first in the city. This "aerial fleet" over the fertile land is redefining agricultural boundaries with data.
A "Data Steward" in the Cloud
If drones are the "hands" of Liangping's low-altitude agriculture, then the "Rice Industry Brain" platform launched on April 30th this year is the "data steward" behind them. Relying on the Mingyue Mountain High-Quality Grain and Oil Industry Technology Innovation Center, this platform deeply integrates the advantages of the low-altitude intelligent manufacturing industry, building algorithmic models and technical systems suited for rice cultivation in the hilly and flatland regions of southwest China. Multidimensional data—meteorological, soil, plant protection, machinery, market—converges here. An AI capability center provides scientific decision-making support for planting entities across the entire cycle, from seed selection and seedling cultivation to field management.
The "Rice Industry Brain" drives digital upgrades through "six excellences": precise management of excellent farmland, integrated breeding and promotion of excellent seeds, AI empowerment of excellent methods, integration of excellent machinery with low-altitude equipment, comprehensive excellent services across the chain, and strengthening the "Liangping Rice" brand as an excellent product. It also creates two types of smart models—for mountainous and flatland areas—forming practical solutions that can be replicated and promoted.
From "flying in the sky" to "computing in the cloud" to "working on the ground"—drone seeding, plant protection, inspection, and the industry brain connect seamlessly, achieving efficient coordination between aerial monitoring, cloud-based decision-making, and ground execution. The platform's command center helps the government precisely manage farmland and crop varieties, conduct dynamic monitoring and disaster warnings, connect the entire production-processing-marketing chain, and achieve full product traceability.
"We used to spray based on experience; now we spray based on data," Chang Jinfei observed. When operating in Jin Dai Street, his drone, equipped with a multispectral camera, conducts simultaneous inspections. Images are transmitted back to the "Rice Industry Brain" in real-time, where AI automatically identifies pest and disease risk areas. Information is then pushed to farmers' mobile phones within minutes. From seed selection to harvest, every critical node now has data support. In Liangping, the "Rice Industry Brain" makes farming truly data-driven.
When every inch of land is "read" by data and every decision is supported by algorithms, traditional agriculture is being rewritten. Notably, this "low-altitude economy plus smart agriculture" model is radiating outward from Liangping. Key grain growers and agricultural cooperative heads from districts and counties like Rongchang, Fuling, Youyang, and Xiushan have made special trips to observe and learn firsthand about practices such as drone direct seeding, area-wide unified pest control, and digital farmland management, exchanging experiences with local operators on socialized托管 services and agricultural machinery talent cultivation. The path explored by Liangping is providing a replicable model for more regions.
The "Industry Chain" of a Single Grain of Rice
The "journey" of a single grain of rice reflects the depth of the industry. At the China Western International Investment and Trade Fair in May this year, as a core area for Chongqing's low-altitude economic development, Liangping innovatively adopted a dual-pavilion linkage model: "core display in the Chongqing Pavilion plus featured promotion in the Liangping Pavilion." Main products like XAG agricultural drones and Longyi V180 agricultural drones were prominently displayed. The V180 model, with a maximum payload of 180 kilograms and a 150-liter超大水箱, can efficiently handle large-scale farmland plant protection operations.
As equipment upgrades, services also extend. The district's 543 socialized service organizations provide full-chain托管 services covering "ploughing, planting, managing, harvesting, drying, and selling," allowing farmers to become "hands-off managers." The service area exceeds 1.7 million mu, and the "Liangping Agricultural Service" brand has been selected as a national exemplary case for three consecutive years.
Growing well is one thing; selling well is another. Liangping's rice processing and conversion rate has reached 75%, with the全产业链产值 reaching 4.08 billion yuan. From a grain of paddy to a grain of rice, and then to deep-processed products, the district has formed a金字塔 brand matrix of "premium rice, gold-medal rice, and high-quality rice," with functional products like low-GI sugar-control rice and selenium-enriched rice continually emerging.
From improved seed breeding to intelligent cultivation, from low-altitude operations to digital services, Liangping has explicitly proposed building a "low-altitude plus smart agriculture" pilot zone this year, starting with试点 projects and adopting a "challenge and reward" approach. From field to table, from growing well to selling well, the upward trajectory of a single grain of rice vividly illustrates how Liangping's low-altitude smart agriculture is moving from technological empowerment to value realization.
In the distance, drones continue to circle at low altitude. Above this Ba-Yu granary, the deep integration of technology and agriculture is nurturing yet another bountiful harvest season.
Comments