A national-level advanced training program focused on "Artificial Intelligence Empowering Modern Agricultural Transformation and Upgrading" officially commenced in Shihezi, Xinjiang, on July 26th.

This event was hosted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, and organized by the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Sciences.

Fifty-seven technical specialists in smart agriculture from provinces including Xinjiang, Tibet, Anhui, Gansu, and Sichuan gathered in the "Pearl of the Gobi Desert." They will leverage the XPCC's millions of acres of standardized cotton field practice platform to systematically study the integration of AI with the entire agricultural industry chain. The goal is to solve the challenges of implementing digital agriculture and cultivate new productive forces in agriculture.

Core Objectives and Expert Insights

The program aims to implement the national plan for updating professional and technical personnel knowledge, focusing on the real-world integration of AI and modern agriculture.

Academician Chen Xuegeng of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who has dedicated over 60 years to cotton mechanization in the XPCC, delivered the opening address based on frontline experience. He noted that while the XPCC has fully mechanized cotton production, new issues have emerged, such as high labor costs for large-scale planting, water and fertilizer waste, and difficulties in quality control. He emphasized that AI, agricultural robots, and crop digital models are the keys to overcoming these obstacles.

He advised all trainees that AI in agriculture cannot be discussed in isolation from agricultural machinery. The focus must be on practical production, addressing the pain points of field adaptability and cost reduction, transforming laboratory technologies into practical, user-friendly solutions for farmers, and bridging the "last mile" of technology application.

Training Curriculum and Industry Context

As the only comprehensive agricultural research institution in the XPCC, the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Sciences possesses 23 national and provincial-level research platforms, establishing a complete research system covering breeding, intelligent machinery, and digital agriculture.

The training curriculum covers more than ten cutting-edge topics, including AI-based breeding, smart sensors, precision irrigation, agricultural big data, and large models for cotton pest and disease detection. The courses are designed to balance theoretical depth with practical field application.

Currently, the domestic AI agriculture market is growing rapidly, but there is a significant shortage of compound talent who possess both agronomy and digital technology skills. Many intelligent devices face a bottleneck, performing well in laboratories but poorly in real-world fields.

Moving forward, the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Sciences plans to use this training as a link to deepen national agricultural science and technology collaboration. By leveraging the XPCC's large-scale farmland test platform, it aims to tackle core technologies in digital intelligent machinery, regularly cultivate high-level digital agriculture talent, and develop smart agriculture solutions adaptable to different production regions across the country. This initiative seeks to use artificial intelligence to strengthen the national food and important agricultural products security baseline, supporting the building of an agricultural powerhouse and the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas.