By Palden Nyima and Daqiong
In Gyatsa, Xizang Autonomous Region, smart use of big data promises to revolutionize walnut farming through effective environmental monitoring, faster smart decision-making, and much more efficient irrigation and fertilization.
This county is the oldest walnut-growing area in Xizang. In December, it was certified by the World Records Certification Agency as the “World’s Largest Millennium Walnut Forest.”
In recent years, Gyatsa walnuts have become the mainstay of its socio-economic development. The walnut plantation area covers 3,000 hectares, with more than 520,000 young walnut trees and an annual output of 1,200 metric tons of walnuts, worth about 36 million yuan (5 million U.S. dollars).
The smart big data system is a major step towards modernizing the walnut industry in Gyatsa, which has in the past had to deal with challenges such as lack of standards, intensive labor and unstable yields.
To address these obstacles and propel the walnut industry towards a more sustainable and efficient future, Gyatsa has embraced modern agricultural technologies. A key milestone in this journey is the implementation of Walnut, an intelligent big data analytics operating system, developed by Hubei Changda Technology Development, in collaboration with Yangtze University.
The Walnut system supports a cutting-edge approach to farm management.
Professor Xu Xiaohong, Assistant President of Yangtze University and leader of the “Aid-Xizang” working team, said the Walnut system was developed using the most advanced technology and equipment in the field of domestic smart agriculture, offering full control, full automation and full digitalization.
“With a mobile phone, one can access real-time parameters of the weather, soil and other conditions of Gyatsa’s walnut orchard from anywhere in the world,” Xu said, noting that even drip irrigation can be controlled remotely.
Xu also pointed out that the “smart” concept of this system is to have a complete set of equipment controlled and operated by a unified system and analysis software. To achieve optimal results, the Walnut will accurately calculate the amounts of fertilizer and irrigation, based on the parameters obtained.
Representing the advancement of new productive forces on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the intelligent big data control operation system has been adapted to the high-altitude environment of Gyatsa. Intelligent irrigation and fertilization machines, automatic irrigation control devices, soil moisture analysis stations and meteorological observation stations are integrated into the intelligent processing.
(Web editor: Zhou Yu, Zhao Jian)
