Shandong Province has officially released a comprehensive implementation plan aimed at driving the application of smart agriculture technologies across its vast rural and farming sectors. The directive, issued by the provincial government, outlines a series of measures to integrate modern information technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence into every link of the agricultural chain. The overarching goal is to position Shandong as a national leader in the development of smart agriculture and to accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

The first major focus of the plan is to transform key industries through intelligent upgrades. In the crop sector, the province will deploy satellite remote sensing, drones, and ground-based sensors to build a robust monitoring network for crop conditions, soil, water, and pests. This will enhance real-time perception and early warning capabilities against agricultural meteorological disasters. The plan also calls for the digital transformation of agricultural production, with the widespread promotion of smart agricultural machinery and integrated water-fertilizer management systems. By 2030, the province aims to have integrated water-fertilizer management applied across 20 million mu of grain and oil crop fields, combining high-standard farmland, superior seeds, advanced machinery, and digital technology to significantly boost per-unit yields for staple crops like wheat, corn, soybeans, and peanuts.

Beyond field crops, the plan emphasizes the smart upgrade of facility agriculture, including vegetable bases, orchards, and tea gardens. The initiative focuses on renovating aging and inefficient facilities into standardized, intelligent operations. By integrating precision sensing and intelligent control equipment, agricultural operations will benefit from smarter decision-making throughout the entire growth cycle. Large-scale facility operators will be encouraged to adopt digital management platforms to oversee their entire production process, fostering a shift toward fully intelligent management.

The livestock industry is also a key target for digitalization. Farms and slaughterhouses will be guided to adopt electronic record-keeping and ensure data interoperability across breeding, feed, veterinary medicine, and slaughtering processes. The plan encourages the use of precision feeding, intelligent environmental control, automated inspection, and individual animal identification technologies to enhance breeding efficiency and profitability. This comprehensive digital oversight will span the entire chain from production to slaughter, improving both operational efficiency and regulatory monitoring.

In the fisheries sector, the plan outlines a classified upgrade for both pond and factory-based aquaculture systems. This includes the installation of intelligent feeding systems, smart aeration, water recycling treatment, and online water quality monitoring. Modern marine ranching will be deepened with the adoption of environmental monitoring, underwater inspection, and intelligent harvesting equipment. The initiative also promotes digital integration across the entire fishery value chain, including seedling breeding, health management, product processing, cold-chain logistics, and comprehensive services. Additionally, enhancing digital enforcement in fishery administration and safety is a priority, with the upgrade of vessel equipment and the expanded use of AIS collision avoidance and BeiDou satellite positioning terminals to ensure production safety.

A second critical area is the construction of intelligent infrastructure and key technologies. The province plans to accelerate the development of smart agricultural machinery and agricultural robots designed for complex scenarios such as precision operations, fruit and vegetable picking, pest inspection, livestock health monitoring, and deep-sea farming surveillance. The application of drones will be expanded for plant protection, fertilization, and crop monitoring. Agricultural machinery manufacturers are encouraged to install smart devices like BeiDou navigation and sensors before equipment leaves the factory, facilitating seamless coordination between agricultural infrastructure and intelligent machinery. The plan also actively supports the construction of unmanned farms.

The initiative places a strong emphasis on accelerating the application of smart breeding technologies. It calls for the establishment of a provincial-level germplasm resource database to support data collection and utilization. By integrating artificial intelligence and big data with traditional breeding methods, the province aims to shift from experience-based to intelligent design-based breeding. Research institutions and seed companies will be encouraged to jointly build intelligent breeding platforms. Key vegetable-producing counties, including Shouguang, Lanling, Shenxian, and Jiyang, will be prioritized for the development of intensive digital seedling factories.

Digitalizing agricultural management services is another pillar. The province will enhance the "Qilu Agricultural Cloud" platform as its central digital brain for agriculture and rural areas. This involves expanding the "Lu Agricultural Code" to achieve seamless digital processing for all agricultural-related activities and promoting an integrated map-based management of rural land use. The plan also includes building digital modern agricultural service centers, enabling efficient resource integration and intelligent matching of supply and demand in socialized services, while unlocking the value of agricultural data.

A full-chain digital transformation of the agricultural industry is also planned, with leading enterprises playing a demonstrative role. The focus will be on developing digital technologies and intelligent equipment for deep processing, integrating AI into key steps like sorting, quality control, and supply chain coordination. The province will push for the informatization of quality and safety certification, exploring blockchain applications for traceability of edible agricultural products. Market monitoring and early warning systems will be strengthened, and the "Qilu Agricultural Supermarket" platform will be leveraged to foster the high-quality development of e-commerce, enhancing the brand influence of premium local products.

To unleash the potential of this digital ecosystem, the plan outlines measures to strengthen data governance and technological innovation. The province will establish sound data management systems, build high-quality agricultural datasets, and explore pathways to transform agricultural data assets into value. A secure and trusted environment for data sharing and trading will be created. Concurrently, an "AI + Agriculture" action initiative will be implemented, encouraging collaboration between enterprises, research institutes, and universities to develop innovative agricultural sensors, specialized chips, and algorithms. The integration of AI large models and big data analysis will be a focus, with efforts to build a comprehensive digital agricultural technology system.

Technology adoption and practical application are critical to the plan's success. Agricultural universities, research bodies, and extension services will work with businesses on integrated demonstrations of smart technologies. The province will identify and disseminate key smart agriculture technologies, accelerate the revision of relevant standards, and improve the technical extension service system. In terms of application scenarios, the initiative will promote digital agriculture county construction and regional smart solutions. By 2030, Shandong aims to build 80 digital agriculture counties and establish 300 high-level smart agriculture demonstration scenarios, with the informatization rate of agricultural production reaching over 60 percent.

Finally, the plan ensures robust organizational and financial backing. The agricultural department will lead coordination with relevant government bodies across development, reform, finance, technology, industry, and natural resources. Financial support from rural revitalization funds will be prioritized for key technical breakthroughs and for building digital counties and application scenarios. The province will support the creation of 30 smart agriculture scenarios annually. Financial services and tax incentives will be optimized to support smart agri-tech enterprises and innovation platforms. Efforts will also be made to cultivate talent with interdisciplinary expertise in both information technology and agricultural industry, enhance the digital literacy of agricultural workers, and attract top-tier professionals to the field of smart agriculture development.