The story unfolds in Guangchang, a county nestled in the southeastern mountains of Jiangxi province, near the border with Fujian. Here, farmers tend to vast lotus fields, a scene repeated for over a thousand years. Known as the "Hometown of Chinese White Lotus," Guangchang boasts the largest scale and output of white lotus at the county level nationwide. It is also the birthplace of artificial cultivation techniques for the Agrocybe aegerita mushroom, with lotus and edible fungi forming the backbone of this agricultural county's economy.
In 2024, Guangchang was selected as a pilot county for the national digital village initiative. A network of 527 5G base stations now provides a digital foundation, covering urban centers, towns, and major scenic spots. In this county of roughly 200,000 people, change is taking root. Sensors and pest monitoring lamps now dot the lotus fields. 5G networks and AI-powered quality inspection systems have entered factory workshops. Mushroom cultivation sheds are being equipped with "brains" capable of autonomous thought.
China Telecom Jiangxi's digital engineers are at the forefront, deploying 5G, IoT, big data, and AI to drive the digital transformation of two leading local enterprises. They have laid optical fiber cables through the lotus fields and installed sensors in the corners of edible fungi factories, extending the reach of digital technology into the very soil and air of Guangchang.
Laying the Digital Network Between Lotus Fields and Mushroom Sheds
Guangchang has a solid industrial foundation, with 110,000 mu of lotus fields producing about 9,500 tons of lotus seed annually, and a thriving edible fungi sector. However, scale does not automatically translate to strength. Like many traditional agricultural counties, Guangchang faced challenges: reliance on experience in cultivation, fragmented production data, rudimentary quality control, short industrial chains, and low value-added products.
The push for digital villages offered a path forward. By October 2025, the entire province had achieved full 5G network coverage across all 17,397 administrative villages. At the provincial level, 68 previously disparate agricultural systems were integrated into a single "Cloud Jiangxi Agriculture" platform, aggregating data from millions of farmers and agricultural enterprises.
While the provincial "highway" was built, delivering technology to the fields and production lines required someone to pave the "last mile." In Guangchang, that role is played by China Telecom Jiangxi. Moving beyond simply selling network services, the company provides integrated solutions encompassing data collection, platform construction, and AI application development.
From Experience to Data: A Lotus Enterprise's Digital Loop
Zhichun Food, a leading enterprise in Guangchang's white lotus industry, faced typical challenges of traditional food processing before partnering with China Telecom Jiangxi in 2024. Data was scattered, equipment relied on manual checks, quality inspection was visual, and information from farming and production was disconnected.
China Telecom Jiangxi built a custom 5G industrial internet platform for Zhichun. The transformation started in the fields, where sensors and pest lamps now collect real-time data on soil moisture, temperature, and pests. This data-driven approach has replaced guesswork, with one farmer noting a significant increase in income per mu.
The data then flows into the factory. The technical team connected legacy equipment by installing IoT gateways and protocol converters, bringing previously "silent" machines online. Their operational status, energy consumption, and fault warnings are now monitored 24/7. AI has been deployed on production lines for tasks like cap printing and label inspection, boosting accuracy close to 100% and enabling full traceability.
At the backend, ERP and MES systems are integrated, linking procurement, inventory, production scheduling, and cost accounting. All data converges on the industrial internet platform, generating analytical reports. The result is a closed-loop data flow from field sensor to factory management.
The impact is tangible. General Manager Zhang Yan states decision-making has shifted from "experience-based" to "data-driven." Production efficiency has increased by over 30%, and quality inspection accuracy reaches 99%. The company's digital transformation earned it a provincial "Little Lighthouse" demonstration project designation.
The 'Mushroom Brain': When Equipment Learns to Think
For Bodakang, a company specializing in intelligent equipment for edible fungi, the collaboration with China Telecom Jiangxi was more akin to a "brain transplant." Before July of last year, their automated equipment executed preset programs but lacked autonomous judgment.
China Telecom Jiangxi developed a "Mushroom Cultivation Application Platform" for the company. Chairman Lü Shuhua explains the system enables real-time, dynamic automatic control of parameters like temperature, pH, and humidity. For example, for a specific mushroom batch, the system compares target conditions with live data and autonomously adjusts settings.
The system controls all equipment and covers the entire process from inoculation to packaging. Lü Shuhua likens it to a chef learning recipes; the system, trained on data and images of mushroom growth, learns to judge growth stages and health, making independent decisions on environmental adjustments.
The system learns the growth patterns of each mushroom variety in about a month through data collection and model training. It currently manages the intelligent cultivation of Agrocybe aegerita and antler mushrooms, with plans to cover all suitable cultivated species within two years. The results are striking: year-round production, a tenfold increase in yield per mu, and near-zero labor costs. This transformation earned Bodakang a high-level provincial digital certification.
Observations: The Digital Layer Over Agriculture
Zhichun and Bodakang represent two different paths—one creating a data loop across an entire industry chain, the other granting production equipment cognitive abilities—both moving towards replacing experience with data and optimizing decisions with algorithms.
China Telecom Jiangxi's role has evolved. It is no longer just the "road builder" but also the "vehicle maker" and "driver," providing end-to-end capabilities from connectivity to intelligent manufacturing. The role has shifted from a traditional "pipe provider" to a "solution provider" and "technology co-creator" deeply embedded in fields and workshops.
The journey is not without challenges, including protocol compatibility for legacy equipment and the adoption threshold for SMEs. Moving from "functional" to "excellent," and from "demonstration" to "widespread adoption," remains a long road. Chairman Lü Shuhua acknowledges the need to continually expand the mushroom industry database.
Nevertheless, Guangchang has proven a viable path. When 5G signals cover every mu of lotus field and mushroom sheds are managed by an intelligent "brain," the digital village becomes tangible. It is measured in extra pounds of lotus seeds harvested, additional flushes of quality mushrooms, and real income growth for thousands.
Guangchang's story may be just a beginning. With province-wide 5G coverage and a massive agricultural data platform in place, the digital foundation is laid. More enterprises like Zhichun and Bodakang are on the horizon. This path leads not just to upgraded factories and sheds, but to a future where a traditional agricultural county is redefined by digital technology.
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