Chongqing - The Agricultural Technology Conference convened in Tongnan District, Chongqing, on December 10. In Tai'an Town, rows of modernized vegetable greenhouses caught the attention of attendees at the Fengmin Vegetable Garden in Guanba Village.
The greenhouses have a dual-arch, double-shelled structure, resembling a "greenhouse within a greenhouse" design. This innovative configuration enhances insulation and significantly improves temperature regulation.
The tomato greenhouse of Fengmin Vegetable Garden. (Photo/Li Yuanyuan)
Inside, neatly arranged rows of small tomatoes thrive under the protective cover of special plastic film. Unlike the conventional black or white plastic commonly used, the film here is a silver-gray color, providing better insulation and reflecting light effectively, promoting optimal fruit ripening.
The greenhouse is fully automated and equipped with integrated water and fertilizer systems and various monitoring devices. These advanced technologies enable real-time tracking of plant growth conditions through a central intelligent management platform located at the back end of the facility.
"We've truly implemented AI-powered greenhouse management. For instance, we've activated the winter heating and dehumidifying mode, all of which is analyzed and controlled by our backend system," said one staff member.
Fengmin Vegetable Garden produced these cherry radishes. (Photo/Li Yuanyuan)
This approach has proven more effective than traditional manual adjustments. Thermal contrast images collected from the field show that soil in the AI-controlled greenhouse appears noticeably redder, indicating a higher heat value than in the manual mode.
With the support of intelligent equipment, the vegetable yield at Fengmin Vegetable Garden has increased by 4 to 5 times compared to open-field planting and by 2 to 3 times compared to conventional greenhouse cultivation. Among the key products, the Galaxy series cherry tomatoes stand out, with an impressive 4000 to 5000 kilograms per mu yield. The per-acre value can reach between 40,000 and 60,000 yuan ($5508-$8,262), with profits ranging from 16,000 to 38,000 yuan.
Automated grafting of seedlings
A Qiongjiang Seed Industry Base staff member in Tongnan, Chongqing, explained that they place the wild eggplant and regular eggplant plants on the machine, automatically cutting and grafting them together.
Grafting wild eggplants with regular eggplants strengthens the wild variety's rootstock by combining it with the seedling of the cultivated eggplant. This "strong pairing" results in a more robust and higher-quality eggplant plant.
Machine-grafted eggplant plants. (Photo/Li Yuanyuan)
Once the two plants were positioned in the correct spots, the machine would automatically cut them and then use a transparent fixture to bond them together. After the grafting, the plants were transported along a conveyor belt to a collection point.
In addition, the base has fully automated grafting equipment, which doesn't require manual plant placement; the entire process is carried out by robotic arms that automatically grab and operate.
The production manager of the base, Jiang Shuanglong, highlighted that compared to manual grafting, the semi-automatic and fully automated grafting systems increase efficiency by six to eight times. The grafts heal more quickly, and the plant survival rate reaches 95 percent, marking a 10 percent improvement. "In terms of cost, manual grafting costs 0.15 yuan per plant, while semi-automatic and fully automatic processes reduce this to 0.05 yuan and 0.02 yuan, respectively," Jiang noted.
Workers at the Qiongjiang Seed Industry Base use semi-automatic grafting equipment for their operations. (Photo/Li Yuanyuan)
The Qiongjiang Seed Industry Base cultivates vegetables and flowers year-round using a digital production management platform. Its fully automated seeding line sows 600 trays per hour, boosting efficiency by over tenfold. Additionally, tidal-style intelligent logistics seedbeds enable full automation of seedbed transport, irrigation, lighting, and tray handling, cutting labor costs by more than 80 percent.