Alibaba has assisted growers in introducing technology that has improved their output and supply chain.
Technology is assisting in the transformation of China’s lychee sector, with innovative solutions being introduced across the supply chain.
Growers in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, such as Chen Shiquan, have adopted intelligent farming technologies to control activities such as irrigation and fertilisation via mobile phones, according to a Xinhua story.
“The intelligent agricultural system relieves farmers of time-consuming activities, especially in the summer.” “I can conduct most of the agricultural job with just a few taps on my phone,” Chen explained.
In Lingshan County, Guangxi, an agricultural demonstration park for digital farming has been constructed in collaboration with China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba.
The 1.3ha orchard includes digital technology such as an integrated irrigation and fertilisation system, a pest monitoring system, and a spore collecting device, all of which contribute to the creation of a standardised lychee growing system.
Lin Haiyin, the park’s manager, stated that digital technology has helped to standardise production and increase fruit quality. There were also plans to expand the park’s greenhouse horticulture to allow for year-round lychee production.
“Lychee planting in the park now depends on scientific data rather than farmers’ individual experiences,” Lin explained.
In addition, the county has built a public packhouse for Lingshan lychee producers. This provides producers with access to cutting-edge sorting, grading, packaging, and cold chain technologies.
According to Wu Duoce of Alibaba’s digital agricultural business, the inclusion of a centralised logistics facility and the digitization of the lychee industry’s supply chain has helped producers save costs and boosted the country’s ambitions to access foreign markets.