An unmanned rice harvester works in a paddy field in Haituo county, Da’an city, in Jilin province. [Photo by Xu Chang/Xinhua]

Unmanned rice harvesters are now being utilized in rice fields in Da’an city in Northeast China’s Jilin province for the fall harvest season, according to local reports.

Applying a Beidou satellite positioning system, the harvesters work in a spiral route, and can swerve, reverse and harvest automatically.

Agricultural companies said that the unmanned harvesters help cut labor costs and at the same time improve harvesting efficiency.

Manufactured by FJ Dynamics -- a company engaged in intelligent innovation in logistics, agriculture and industry – these kinds of harvesters have come into use in their first year and have harvested 1,000 hectares of rice in Heilongjiang, Jiangsu and other places.

Zhang Lei, director of the rural development institute of the Jilin academy of social sciences, said that Jilin has seen a rising mechanization rate in farming, and the application of such intelligent machines helped to improve harvesting efficiency, while the quality of rice was also ensured.

China is a large producer and consumer of rice. In 2018, the country produced 212.13 million tons of rice.