Dedicated sensors boost the development of agricultural Internet of Things

[China Agricultural Machinery Industry News] China's agriculture has continued the contradiction between high energy input and extensive operation. It is urgent to realize the refinement and real-time controllable operation in the agricultural production process. The agricultural Internet of Things came into being. Through the dedicated sensor, the three functions of sensing, transmission and control can be realized.

The Agricultural Internet of Things Expert Group of the Ministry of Agriculture recently screened and released 310 results to the public. These results include sensing equipment, software systems, application models, market-based solutions and typical cases, and the promotion and application of agricultural Internet of Things. A good demonstration role.

Dedicated sensors boost the development of agricultural Internet of Things

China's agricultural development is faced with the constraints of resource shortage and environmental degradation. Facing the contradiction between high investment and extensive operation of resources, it is urgent to realize real-time monitoring of agricultural production process and improve the level of refined management. The agricultural Internet of Things has emerged. How does the agricultural Internet of Things apply and what role it plays?

What is the wisdom of agriculture?

"In the past, relying on experience, it is easy to misjudge. Now relying on instruments, management is more scientific." In the Tianjin Jinghai Shengbao Farmers Cooperative, the demonstration site of the Agricultural Internet of Things in the Ministry of Agriculture, the situation of dozens of vegetable greenhouses was concentrated. "On several computer screens, a dynamic map of the 24 hours of information on the air, soil temperature and humidity in the shed. Once needed, automatic or remote control of irrigation, roller blinds, etc. can be performed. Gu Jing, the chairman of the cooperative, is very satisfied with the IoT equipment: “After the equipment was installed, the base reduced the demand for 20 workers and saved labor costs by 600,000 yuan a year.”

Log in to the Tianjin Agricultural IoT Platform and click on the “Production Support” sub-platform. The agricultural information of each IoT pilot is clearly displayed. The platform was developed by Tianjin and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, covering 17 databases in agricultural production and market circulation, and realized online collection of 25 base sensor data in the city. “Without the need to go to the ground, you can grasp the breeding situation of the city's networked cooperatives, and provide a basis for expert technical guidance and decision-making,” said Guan Hongyi, director of the Information Center of Tianjin Agricultural Committee Market Information Office.

At the beginning of 2013, the State Council issued a document proposing to implement the scale demonstration application of the Internet of Things, including agriculture, in various fields by 2015. Since then, the Ministry of Agriculture has implemented the agricultural Internet of Things regional pilot project in Tianjin, Shanghai and Anhui provinces. The three regions have carried out trial and demonstration in key areas according to the characteristics of their respective agricultural industries, and tried to explore the formation, availability and sustainability of the agricultural Internet of Things. Application mode, promoted in stages in the country.

“Agricultural Internet of Things mainly realizes three functions of perception, transmission and control.” Xu Shiwei, director of the Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, explained that it is not only necessary to perceive environmental variables including water, gas and light, but also to perceive biological ontology. For example, the perception of various nutrients in rice leaves. “If you feel that the chlorophyll content in the leaves of rice is reduced, indicating that there is a lack of nitrogen, it is necessary to add nitrogen fertilizer. It is too late to see the yellowing of the leaves and the top dressing.”

Zhang Syne, Director of the Department of Market and Economic Information of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that transforming agriculture through the Internet of Things technology will improve the intelligence level of each link and help to achieve “environmentally measurable, controllable production and traceability of quality”.

Where is the industry bottleneck?

“Two years ago, I saw a chlorophyll-based detection sensor in Israel. Nowadays, Chinese companies have begun to break the problem, and have begun to have independent intellectual property rights in the development of detection sensors including biological bodies such as chlorophyll and foliar temperature.” Deputy Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong said that China's agricultural Internet of Things has achieved rapid development and its application range has become increasingly widespread. However, compared with other fields such as industry and commerce, it is still in its infancy, and the gap is obvious.

Zhao Chunjiang, director of the National Agricultural Information Technology Research Center, said that the agricultural Internet of Things is small in scale and does not form a sustainable business model. Key technologies and practical products need to be further strengthened. The specific performance is that the product price is relatively high, the technical performance needs to be improved; the perception of animal and plant ontology life information needs to be strengthened; the high-throughput and low-cost communication technology suitable for rural areas needs to be strengthened; the product mass production capacity is insufficient, or after mass production, Sell ​​it right away.

Capital investment is the primary problem that plagues the development of the agricultural Internet of Things. In the case of low overall efficiency of agriculture and the decentralized operation of small farmers, the development of the Internet of Things faces financial difficulties. Perth Wei, vice chairman of the Internet of Things Industry Association, believes that the pilot demonstration does not mean real industrialization, and it will take time for large-scale commercial application. Agriculture is a weak industry, and the controllability of production conditions is poor. This determines that the application of the Internet of Things in China's agricultural field is obviously different from that in the industrial and other fields, which has led to serious restrictions on capital in the early stage of its development.

A set of Internet of Things equipment, ranging from 10,000 yuan to several hundred thousand yuan, due to different core sensors and different layout sizes. At present, the IoT project in the pilot area adopts government subsidies and investment methods for enterprise investment, and the input-output ratio of each enterprise to the Internet of Things is different. Gu Jing said: "The cooperative vegetable greenhouses IOT equipment invested a total of 1.1 million yuan, of which the government supported 700,000 yuan, self-raised 400,000 yuan, it is estimated that the self-raised cost can be recovered in one year." But for enterprises, this Part of the cost is still relatively high.