Shouguang, Shandong: Digitized and Intelligent Vegetable Production ushers in a New Transformation in Agriculture

SHOUGUANG, China, May 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- "I am 32 years old and graduated with a bachelor's degree. After graduation, I went back to my village to plant vegetable greenhouses. Now, I can manage a 300 meters long vegetable greenhouse on my own with an annual income of nearly 200,000 yuan. Do you know what I rely on? It is the electrification-based smart greenhouse planting model. This is the future trend of the vegetable industry development." Li Liguo, a farmer from Dongchengguan Village, Luocheng Street, Shouguang, Shandong, said in the interview with State Grid Shouguang Power Supply Company.

At present, Shouguang's greenhouse technology has been innovated to the seventh generation. The new generation of electrified and smart greenhouses has become a "standardized workshop" and "standardized plant". Greenhouse planting has become an appealing "technical job" that greatly liberates labor forces and attracting more and more young people to become "new farmers". The vegetable planting area in Shouguang now reaches 600,000 acres, with an annual output of 4.5 billion kilograms of high-quality vegetables, unfolding a vast vivid scene of "factory-like" greenhouse and "industrialized" agriculture.

In the mean time, more advanced smart transformation in vegetable cultivation is quietly taking root. At Shouguang Luocheng Modern Agriculture High tech Experimental Demonstration Base, State Grid Shouguang Power Supply Company has connected advanced electrical facilities such as water and fertilizer integration machines, carbon dioxide generators, supplementary lights, and plant protection machines through standardized energy equipment during the digital transformation. Real-time monitor of the environmental data such as temperature, humidity, and lighting can be done through the company's self-developed "365 Electric Steward" smart energy service platform. Just downloading the APP on their mobile phones, Vegetable farmers can achieve the "four remotes", including remote viewing, remote communication, remote telemetry, and remote adjustment. Also, the "four savings" , namely saving time, saving energy , saving money, and saving effort , are realized as well.

"The future vegetable cultivation will need less manpower, but will have higher efficiency and higher output value." said Zhang Xi, a staff from State Grid Shouguang Power Supply Company.

It is estimated that a 150 meter long vegetable greenhouse covers an area of about 3 acres. It is equipped with 8 types of electrification equipment with a digital transformation investment of about 60,000 yuan. After the transformation, each acre can save 40 per cent of water and 30 per cent of fertilizer per year, reduce about 20 people's labor force per day, and increase nearly 5 per cent of vegetable production. So the average income of each greenhouse increases about 30,000 yuan.

In today's Shouguang, smart electricity has given more power and confidence to agricultural development. Stepping on the bridge of digital intelligence electric power, the greenhouses, known as "vegetable factories," synchronized with industrial manufacture, have entered the era of intelligence.

SOURCE State Grid Shouguang Power Supply Company