An intelligent farmland project was officially launched in the city of Harbin in China's northernmost Heilongjiang province on April 23.
 
The project was jointly launched by the science and technology departments of the Harbin municipal government and Heilongjiang Provincial Government, and is being carried out by the Harbin Institute of Technology.
 
The project aims to combine the advanced concepts and technologies of new-generation artificial intelligence with large-scale agricultural production to improve the efficiency of plowing, sowing, managing and harvesting major food crops.
 
The project's technologies are expected to be applied on farms with an area of more than 10,000 mu in Beidahuang, Heilongjiang province, which mainly produce rice, corn and wheat. 
 
Liu Jie, dean of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence affiliated with the Harbin Institute of Technology, said that the project is in line with national strategic needs and agricultural modernization development goals.
 
It has the potential to solve China's lack of agricultural machinery, fragmented independent operation functions, poor group collaboration capabilities, and low management efficiency of traditional farms.
 
In order to improve efficiency, the project will also see the construction of an agricultural safety barrier to achieve both economic and social benefits.