On September 18, the "Exploring Vitality in China" research team visited the Yandengbao Smart Agriculture Demonstration Park in Zigui County, Yichang City. In the fields, agricultural drones skimmed low over the navel orange groves, carrying out plant protection operations. "Currently, the drones are conducting plant protection work, spraying low-toxicity biological pesticides," said Li Li, head of the Science, Education, and Informatization Section of the Zigui County Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau. He noted that the county now boasts 1,050 agricultural drones and over 2,600 plant protection pilots, mostly born after 1995 or even 2000.
In Zigui, farmers once relied on carrying loads by shoulder pole, a 100-jin basket of oranges taking a 40-minute trek down the mountain. Guo Xingcheng, born in 1987, took over his family's 30-mu orchard in 2011, and has since established an agricultural service company with 10 drone pilots and a 40-person fruit-picking team. "A single drone can carry 200 jin per trip, making one trip every minute, handling 50,000 to 60,000 jin a day in peak season," Guo explained. During busy periods, pilots can earn 30,000 to 50,000 yuan monthly, with business expanding to Fujian, Chongqing, and Sichuan provinces for tasks like hoisting pomelos and pomegranates, as well as plant protection.
Zigui's distinction is not just the abundance of drones, but the deep integration of digitalization into its mountain orchards. In 2020, Zigui was among the first batch selected for the national digital countryside pilot program, launching its Digital Agriculture 1.0. At the Yandengbao base, automated weather and soil moisture collection, pest monitoring, and integrated water-fertilizer systems are spread throughout the orchards, allowing farmers to irrigate and fertilize remotely with just a smartphone.
Since 2023, Zigui has advanced to Smart Agriculture 2.0. The core shift is that data has evolved from a supporting tool into a basis for decision-making. Zigui has built the Three Gorges Citrus Industry Platform, coding and assigning unique identifiers to 451,000 plots covering 397,000 mu of navel orange orchards. Each orchard now has a digital ID card containing altitude, slope, and tree age data, which generates soil-test-based fertilization recommendation cards tailored to soil nutrients and planting varieties, telling farmers when to fertilize, what to apply, and how much to use.
Currently, Zigui's navel orange planting area reaches 400,000 mu, with an annual output exceeding 1 million tons and a comprehensive production value surpassing 25 billion yuan. The county has nurtured 18 villages with annual incomes over 100 million yuan, and the average annual income for growers exceeds 100,000 yuan. The brand value of Zigui navel oranges stands at 16.678 billion yuan.