In the steep orange groves of Zigui County, Hubei Province, the traditional image of farmers hauling heavy baskets on their backs is rapidly becoming a relic. A loud hum fills the air as an agricultural drone lifts a crate of fresh oranges from a precarious hillside, carrying it smoothly to a collection point halfway down the mountain. Nearby, a single-track rail system shuttles more fruit down to the base, showcasing a daily routine where technology has become the backbone of local agriculture.

During a recent visit to the Yandengbao Smart Agriculture Demonstration Garden in Guojiawa Town, reporters observed a scene straight out of a futuristic farming manual. The core 200-mu base, which radiates its influence across 20,000 mu of surrounding orchards, is equipped with monitoring devices for weather, soil moisture, pests, and disaster conditions throughout the groves. A water-fertilizer integrated pipeline network runs beneath every single orange tree. Oranges here don't just rely on human hands; they travel by drone and rail, a small but telling example of the region's smart agriculture in full swing.

Behind these small-scale operations lies a massive industry. Yichang City has seen rapid growth in its agricultural drone sector, with impressive numbers in drone ownership, operational scale, and professional pilots, all ranking among the top in Hubei Province. In Zigui, known as the "Hometown of China's Navel Oranges," the impact of technology is particularly stark: the county's entire navel orange industry chain has generated a comprehensive output value of 24.243 billion yuan, while the "Zigui Navel Orange" brand alone is valued at 16.678 billion yuan.

The region has also fostered a new profession in its orchards. Nestled along the Xiling Gorge of the Yangtze River, Zigui's orchards are scattered across steep terrains with significant elevation changes and deep ravines, many bordering cliffs and roads. In the past, during harvest season, every single orange had to be carried down the mountain by laborers. Song Xingjian, a county official, explained that hiring workers was a costly affair. A pair of male and female laborers could cost up to 1,200 yuan a day, including meals and cigarettes, translating to a picking and transport cost of about 0.3 yuan per jin of oranges. Now, he says, with drone transport, this cost has been halved to approximately 0.15 yuan per jin.

Pilot Guo Xingcheng was among the first in the county to adopt this new technology. "At its peak, a single drone could lift 50,000 to 60,000 jin a day," he recalled. During the early promotion period, skeptical farmers were convinced only after seeing successful trials on his own orchard. By December 2025, the county boasts 1,050 agricultural drones and has trained over 2,500 pilots, with most being from the post-95 and post-00 generations. The development of 2,200 rail transport lines with a total length of 410,000 meters further supports the infrastructure. In 2025 alone, over 700,000 tons of oranges were transported by drone across approximately 300,000 mu of orchards, marking a 7-to-8-fold efficiency increase over traditional manual work.

However, Zigui's digital transformation extends far beyond transport. "Zigui is a typical mountainous area. In the past, farming relied on shoulder and back power. But as rural areas age, finding labor is becoming a major challenge," noted Li Li from the county's agricultural bureau. Promoting drones and IoT devices is essential, he stresses, providing the technological support to answer the critical question of who will farm in the future. To this end, all 451,000 orange plots covering 397,000 mu have been encoded with "digital IDs" containing elevation, slope, and tree age data. Farmers can open the "Zigui Sannong" WeChat account to receive automated "soil-testing formula fertilization suggestions" based on soil nutrients and planting variety. If pests and diseases are found, farmers can simply take a photo and upload it. AI will automatically identify the type and provide a targeted prevention and control plan, helping to keep losses from diseases and pests under 5%.

Zigui's journey represents a leap from the "1.0 version" of digital agriculture to the "2.0 version" of smart agriculture since being selected as a national pilot for digital rural development in 2020. A landmark moment came in October 2025 when the "Three Gorges Citrus Industry Brain Plot Information Dataset" was officially registered, marking the first case of public data intellectual property registration by an administrative unit in Hubei Province.

Policy support has been the bedrock of this transformation. Building on the 7 million yuan from central agricultural machinery subsidies, Zigui introduced its own award and subsidy policies, allocating an additional 2 million yuan for top-up subsidies of 30% on top of the provincial standards, with a maximum subsidy of 18,000 yuan per drone. This has supported the purchase and subsidization of 892 agricultural drones, with total subsidies reaching 11.54 million yuan. To tackle issues like charging and take-off difficulties for drones in mountainous areas, the county has cleared 36 kilometers of obstructing wires and invested 4 million yuan to build 44 take-off and landing platforms and charging stations across five major citrus production areas. This has created a closed-loop system of "charging services + income feedback" that continuously benefits the village collective economy.

The synergy of policy and industry has ultimately translated into tangible gains for the people. The county's navel orange cultivation now covers 400,000 mu, with an annual output exceeding 1 million tons and a comprehensive output value of 25 billion yuan. This industry benefits over 260,000 residents, creating a year-round supply of fresh oranges from "Lunwan" in spring to "Xiacheng" in summer, "Jiuyuehong" in autumn, and "Newhall" in winter. The county has also cultivated 18 "100-million-yuan villages" dedicated to citrus, with the average annual income for growers exceeding 100,000 yuan. The "Zigui Orange Farmer" labor brand has trained 2,500 young people for return-to-hometown employment and entrepreneurship. With over 10 national honors, the "Zigui Navel Orange" brand’s value of 16.678 billion yuan has earned it a spot in the national "2025 Agricultural Brand Elite Cultivation Plan."

The trend is spreading across Yichang City, where the agricultural drone fleet now surpasses 2,100 units. Zigui, along with Dangyang, Zhijiang, and Yiling, are leading in ownership numbers. The city has more than 3,200 certified professional drone pilots, and the industry's operational income has exceeded 130 million yuan, making it a provincial leader in low-altitude agriculture. This digital shift is visible in Yichang’s regional economy, which achieved a GDP of 646.4 billion yuan in 2025. Looking ahead, Zigui has clear plans. The county intends to deepen the integration of its "Citrus Brain" with more data resources, focusing on building a seed-chip program, smart boutique orchards, a modern agricultural supply chain platform, and a comprehensive testing center. The goal is to continually build high-quality datasets that suit Zigui, as Li Li explains, "to make AI smarter and decision-making more accurate, transforming data resources into data assets, and making Zigui a place that exports agricultural data assets and standards."