Zibo city – located in East China's Shandong province – has rolled out a raft of initiatives this year to boost its rural vitalization, Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Director Yang Suyi told a news conference on May 25.
Digital agriculture is being introduced in order to galvanize the entire rural industry supply chain. In all, Zibo aims to establish or extend 25 key digital agriculture projects this year, with a planned investment of 1.3 billion yuan ($183.60 million) – and to date projects costing 175 million yuan have been completed.
New integrated water and fertilizer equipment increases efficiency at the Hongji cooperative, in Zibo's Huantai county. [Photo/WeChat account: zibofabu2014]
The city has moved to bring in eight innovative groups involved in digital orchard and intelligent irrigation, as well as agricultural robots, among other high-tech fields of endeavor.
This year, 135,000 mu (9,000 hectares) of high-standard farmland have been established or upgraded. Focusing on cultivating green and high-quality agricultural products, Zibo is currently home to 181 agricultural demonstration bases at or above the municipal level, ranking it first in the province.
Succulent watermelons are a very popular crop in Gaoqing county in Zibo. [Photo/WeChat account: zibofabu2014]
In addition, Zibo will push hard to establish four dedicated areas for rural vitalization and five villages of rural beauty. To date, investment of 590 million yuan in this area has been completed.
In terms of infrastructure, 39.4 kilometers of rural roads have been renovated in the current year, 155.3 km of rural roads surface have been upgraded, while seven water supply projects have started construction and 198 broadband 5G base stations have been installed.
