Tech cultivating China's rural vitalization

China's countryside is being rewired. Digital and smart technologies are rapidly transforming agriculture, laying the foundation for comprehensive rural vitalization. According to the 2025 smart agriculture action plan, the country's smart agriculture market exceeded 100 billion yuan ($14.35 billion) in 2024 and is projected to reach 120 billion yuan in 2025. Artificial intelligence, 5G and big data are increasingly being integrated into farming. In Zhejiang province, agricultural robot penetration rose from 3.2 percent in 2020 to 15.7 percent in 2024.

These advances are reshaping rural life, not only by improving production efficiency but also by redefining governance and industry models.

National policy has been instrumental in driving this transformation. China is building a comprehensive institutional framework for digital agriculture, embedding technology across the entire value chain, and steering traditional agriculture toward data-driven production. The focus on "digital farmlands +smart management" is accelerating applications of AI, low-altitude drones and satellite technologies while upgrading rural telecommunications infrastructure. Phased development goals include raising agricultural informatization rates and establishing digital farms, providing a road map for medium — and long-term growth.

If national policy sets the direction, local governments are turning vision into reality. By leveraging regional agricultural strengths, they are developing differentiated models of smart agriculture that translate national plans into real-world outcomes. In Jiangxi province, a digital platform integrates 68 previously fragmented agricultural systems, linking provincial, municipal, county, township and village levels. With annual provincial investment close to 100 million yuan, this system demonstrates "data sharing + precision services" in action.

In the rice-shrimp bases in Dayu county and through drone logistics in Nankang district of Ganzhou city, Jiangxi province, digital technologies have enhanced productivity and reduced costs. In Jiangsu province, the "smart-to-digital transformation" initiative aims to establish 100 smart industrial parks and 200 digital farms, supported by a cloud infrastructure for farmers and innovative financial products like loans for farmers. These local experiments illustrate how policy innovation and technological application can create scalable and replicable models for nationwide adoption.

The impact of smart agriculture extends beyond efficiency gains. In production, digital tools are shifting farming from experience-based judgment to data-driven decision making. Beidou navigation, the internet of things and big data analytics enable precise planting, real-time monitoring and optimized harvesting, increasing yields while conserving resources. In Nanchang city of Jiangxi province, fully unmanned planting zones and smart plant protection systems demonstrate how technology stabilizes product quality, lowers costs, and enhances resilience — vital for ensuring food security.

Digital agriculture also transforms industrial and commercial dynamics. By breaking spatial and temporal barriers, it fosters new business models that blend e-commerce, logistics, and rural tourism. By 2025, China had built 346,000 village-level logistics service stations. Express delivery coverage exceeded 95 percent of administrative villages and over 100 million packages were handled daily. More than 158,000 village e-commerce service points linked farmers directly to consumers, creating new value chains. This "logistics, e-commerce and specialty products" ecosystem reduces losses, streamlines distribution and boosts farmers' income, exemplifying how digital integration can vitalize rural economies.

Governance is also being upgraded. AI and digital platforms provide precise and efficient tools for village management. Systems like Jiangxi's project to link the villagers and Zhejiang's "rural brain" integrate administrative services, ecological monitoring and social welfare, enabling "one-stop" governance. Such innovations transform rural administration from coarse, reactive management into targeted, data-driven solutions, improving both efficiency and the quality of public services.

Three priorities will shape the next phase of digital agriculture in China. First, infrastructure development must continue, extending 5G, satellite internet and smart water systems to rural areas, creating a digital backbone for production, commerce, and governance. Second, technological innovation should focus on seeds, intelligent equipment and data analysis, fostering collaboration among government, industry, and academia to localize key technologies. Third, talent cultivation is essential: training farmers in digital skills, promoting returnee entrepreneurship and nurturing "new farmers" proficient in agriculture, technology, and market operations.

Digital and smart agriculture is not just a technological upgrade — it is a structural transformation enabling rural China to thrive in the 21st century. By integrating national policy guidance with local innovation and leveraging iterative advances in AI and digital tools, China is breaking through traditional constraints, aligning agricultural modernization with rural revitalization strategies. The result is a vision of rural communities that are productive, well-governed and prosperous — a model of modern, sustainable and inclusive development.

Li Chunding is the associate dean of the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University; and Li Ningjing is a research fellow of the International Economics Institute of the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University.

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