Navel oranges get 'digital ID cards'

By Chen Si

Each navel orange in Zigui County now comes with its own unique "digital ID card." This milestone marks one of the key breakthroughs of the Three Gorges Navel Orange Industry Platform, whose IoT monitoring system now covers nearly 400,000 mu (26,666 hectares) of orchards.

These “ID cards” enable farmers to carry out intelligent, precise management across the entire production chain, from planting and cultivation to distribution and sales.

The platform integrates data on Zigui County's topography, soil, climate, orange varieties and scale. Farmers can access it through a WeChat mini-program, which automatically locates their plots and generates soil testing and fertilizer recommendation cards, providing full-process data support to optimize planting practices.

"Since we started using the platform, it has become much easier to know when to fertilize and what kind of fertilizer to use," said Ma Shangguo, a villager from Wangjialing Village.

The platform features nine functional modules, covering key areas such as arable land information and IoT data.

The arable land information module allows users to check organic matter and other important soil components. The IoT data module collects real-time data on production environments, including temperature and humidity. The meteorological monitoring module provides comprehensive weather updates.

By leveraging satellite remote sensing and 5G technology, the platform transmits data collected by monitoring terminals in real time for intelligent analysis, offering precise guidance for agricultural production.

"The platform encodes and maps orange-growing plots and IoT facilities, creating a digital twin system for the Three Gorges navel orange industry. So far, 451,000 plots with a combined area of 397,000 mu have been coded, involving 42,000 orange farmers," said Li Li, an official from the Zigui Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau.

Since the start of this year, Zigui has installed 10 new IoT monitoring devices in addition to 20 existing systems.

These IoT devices are used to collect real-time dynamic data on weather, soil moisture and pest infestations, promoting a shift in orchard management from experience-based decision-making to data-driven practices.

The county has also built 82 intelligent greenhouses and established a digital precision management platform to accurately monitor the growth of millions of seedlings.

Li noted that to date, the platform has attracted 1,568 market entities, with a cumulative transaction volume of 2.07 billion yuan (US$301 million).

Jie Xingwei and Yan Shijie also contributed to this story.