Developing from Mechanized to Smart Agricultural Production in China

The mode transformation of agricultural production is a common concern for China and worldwide. Currently, the level of mechanization has been significantly promoted for the agriculture sector in China and smart production becomes an inevitable trend for modern agriculture. Smart agriculture regards data, knowledge, and intelligent equipment as the core elements and integrates modern science and technology with agriculture to realize digital perception, intelligent decision-making, precise operation, and smart management in the entire process of agricultural production, thereby greatly improving labor productivity, resource utilization rate, and land output rate. This article presents the current status of agricultural production in China using rice production as an example, and analyzes the necessity, opportunities, challenges, directions, and route for the intelligent transformation of China’s agriculture. Furthermore, we propose policy suggestions to promote the intelligent development of China’s agricultural production, including (1) strengthening the research and innovation system for agricultural machinery, (2) improving the agricultural machinery promotion system, (3) optimizing the socialized service system for agricultural machinery, and (4) accelerating the construction of smart agriculture demonstration zones.