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SHANGHAI, China, April 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Agronomists and information scientists collaborating in Pinduoduo’s Smart Agriculture Competition developed easy-to-use precision greenhouse administration expertise that boosted productiveness and yield with out want for particular coaching on the a part of growers.
The tomato-growing greenhouse problem was received by TomaGrow, made up largely of alumni from Wageningen University & Research and China Agricultural University with deep business expertise. They beat three different groups within the remaining after being evaluated on yield, dietary worth, environmental sustainability and business viability. Over 120 researchers globally from 15 groups had been shortlisted for the preliminary spherical of the competitors.
During the six-month problem, contestants took totally different approaches, combining vitamin science, laptop imaginative and prescient, deep studying, and different precision farming expertise to domesticate tomatoes remotely. The groups adjusted variables corresponding to humidity, lighting and nutrient profiles from afar, showcasing the flexibility to handle rising operations remotely.
The groups managed to ship yields which can be about double the yields of conventional growers, in line with specialists. The dietary worth additionally registers within the high vary of the business, based mostly on the inspection report from a number one meals testing institute.
This is the second 12 months that Pinduoduo has hosted the Smart Agriculture Competition. This 12 months, the corporate partnered with China Agricultural University and Zhejiang University to arrange the occasion, with technical assist from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and Wageningen University & Research. The competitors additionally labored with a good institute to measure the carbon footprint for every workforce to determine benchmarks for future reference.
“Our world agri-food techniques want modern options to sustainably nourish folks whereas nurturing our planet,” stated Carlos Watson, FAO consultant to China. “The Smart Agriculture Competition supplies a singular platform for participating young folks, technologists, innovators, non-public sector and analysis institutes collectively, to incubate tailored sensible options of addressing the real-life issues confronted by smallholder farmers.”
With about 80% of the members of their 20s, the Smart Agriculture Competition has turn out to be a platform for young proficient agricultural researchers to work on real-life “pain points” and develop sensible options.
“Through this competition, we want to encourage more young people to make a meaningful impact in agriculture through technology,” stated Li Daoliang, Dean of the International College of China Agricultural University. “These young talents are very important drivers for the agricultural modernization.”
One of the distinctive features of the competitors is the emphasis on business viability along with productiveness and sustainability. To guarantee they’re creating functions which can be sensible and cost-effective, all 4 finalists made certain to incorporate business growers of their groups.
TomaGrow, the profitable workforce, developed an easy-to-use greenhouse administration mannequin that integrates algorithms and sensors, and which can be utilized by farmers with out particular coaching. It was capable of go one step additional in creating a illness prediction mannequin that gave farmers a one-week window to intervene and forestall loss.
“Agriculture is an industry with very low fault tolerance. Once disease occurs, it may deliver a devastating blow,” stated Xu Dan, workforce chief of TomaGrow. The workforce will implement the mannequin in larger-scale pilot initiatives in Beijing and Yunnan, with plans to supply the product commercially to tomato growers throughout the nation.
Hamato and CyberTomato, two different finalist groups with educational backgrounds, even have plans to advertise their greenhouse administration techniques to growers throughout China to assist increase productiveness and scale back prices by way of enhancing efficiencies.
Hamato developed low-cost and low-pollution carbon dioxide enrichment tools that may improve plant development. CyberTomato skilled computer systems to acknowledge how properly the tomatoes had been rising utilizing visible recognition expertise, which might assist farmers to make higher selections on irrigation and harvesting.
“The event offers a good opportunity for young scientists to understand whom the technology is being developed for,” stated He Yong, Dean of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science College of Zhejiang University. “This will broaden their horizon and provide value insights for their future work and research.”
Pinduoduo is organizing the annual competitors as a part of its assist for efforts to enhance and modernize the agriculture business by way of expertise. Since its founding in 2015, the corporate has made agriculture a key pillar of its technique. As China’s largest agriculture platform, Pinduoduo straight connects 16 million farmers with over 850 million shoppers. Last August, it unveiled a ten Billion Agriculture Initiative to handle crucial wants within the agricultural sector and rural areas.
In parallel with the competitors, the corporate is conducting a analysis mission with Wageningen University & Research on enhancing tomato high quality utilizing sustainable rising strategies.
“The driving force for the improvement of the agricultural industry comes from the development and application of technology,” stated Andre Zhu, Senior Vice President at Pinduoduo. “We want to play our part to improve food security and quality in a sustainable way.”
About Pinduoduo Inc.
Pinduoduo connects thousands and thousands of agricultural producers with shoppers throughout China. Pinduoduo goals to convey extra companies and other people into the digital economic system in order that native communities can profit from the elevated productiveness and comfort by way of new market alternatives. For extra info on Pinduoduo and business developments, please go to the content material hub at https://stories.pinduoduo-global.com.
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