Maoming in South China's Guangdong province recently built the first smart orchard for lychees in China.

The smart orchard project, which started at the end of 2018, has currently finished the construction of the first phase of the 150-mu (10 hectares) smart orchard demonstration base for early-maturing lycheess. The integrated system that can water, manure, and apply pesticides for lychees through remote controls was also put into use.

"The smart orchard was basically established at the end of last year," said Chen Shichang, general manager of Maoming Guowang Ecological Agriculture Co Ltd. "It did play a great role during the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pneumonia."

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, Chen's company was unable to recruit workers. However, with the integrated system, Chen managed the whole orchard by himself through the mobile phone APP, handling all the watering, manuring, and applying of pesticides.

In addition, the database collecting data on the use of water, fertilizers, and pesticides on lychees can be used to solve the problem of rich and poor fruit bearing years.

The problem of rich and poor fruit bearing years is caused by changes of trace elements in the growing environment of lychees. The systems of the smart orchard can detect the places lacking trace elements and solve the problem through precise fertilization.

According to Zeng Haibing, the on-site person in charge of the project, the smart orchard will build a system integrating one platform and several application systems through information technologies like the Internet of Things, traceability, and big data application to comprehensively support orchard production.

"Its goal is to realize the unified storage and management of agricultural data, and achieve industrial production," added Zeng.

"Maoming is the world's largest continuous production base for lychees," said Liu Fuqiao, head of the industrial park office of the Maoming bureau of agriculture and rural affairs. "It is of positive significance to promote the construction of smart orchards in the lychee industry."