Gaoling District, Xi'an: Rural Revitalization Empowered by Digital Technologies

In Gaoling District of Xi'an, as rural revitalization forges ahead, the countryside has taken on a new look.

In He Cun Village, Tongyuan Street, Gaoling District, Xi'an, rows of solar greenhouses are spectacular. Greenhouse vegetables have been planted here for 30 years. The greenhouse grows exuberant celery and is also equipped with many high-tech facilities.

Ma Wuxi, a villager, opened an app on his mobile phone, and all the real-time information such as air temperature, air humidity and light in his vegetable greenhouse were displayed on it.

"This is the Internet of Things device installed in our greenhouse. These devices are connected to villagers' mobile phones to help them monitor the greenhouse at home." Bai Quan, deputy director in charge of vegetable technology in the Agricultural Machinery Center of Agriculture, Rural Areas and Forestry Bureau of Gaoling District, said that the equipment will send reminders to villagers through "Small Horn" - the internal environment sensing terminal of facility agriculture intelligence comprehensive monitoring platform. According to the alarm temperature set by farmers, the "Small Horn" monitors the greenhouse environment in real time to help farmers take care of the greenhouse. When an abnormality is found, the "Small Horn" will instantly set off an alarm and warn farmers to take precautions, thus reducing the risk of crop planting and improving the quality of agricultural products.

This setting can ensure that the environment in the greenhouse is suitable for crop growth and realize refined management. At present, the facility agriculture intelligence comprehensive monitoring platform in Gaoling District has covered 600 acres and 400 greenhouses in Tongyuan Street and Luyuan Street.

To broaden the market of greenhouse vegetables, He Cun Village has established a livestreaming center of vegetable sales. Since the establishment of the livestreaming center, 173 short videos have been released in He Cun livestreaming account, with a total of 1.8 million views. As of now, more than 200,000 tons of fruits and vegetables have been sold, effectively expanding product sales.

Digital village is not only the strategic direction of rural revitalization, but also an important part of building digital China. The innovative exploration of He Cun Village is an epitome of the construction of a digital village in the Gaoling District.

As the trailblazer and vanguard of digital rural construction, Gaoling District independently developed the "Digital Luyuan Intelligent Management Service Platform" by taking the provincial digital rural pilot as an opportunity and combining with the actual situation at primary level. The platform relies on the street and village (community) comprehensive network centers to build and operate, and brings safety production, environmental protection, people's livelihood security and other work into grid management to create a safe and happy life for people. At present, the platform has completed the function development of six major sections, and entered more than 90,000 pieces of data. Android and Apple mobile phone applications have been launched. After being put into use, the streets will become paperless offices and people will enjoy more convenience.

In July 2021, the first batch of provincial digital rural pilot areas were announced, and Gaoling District, as the only district and county in Xi'an, was listed among them. Going forward, Gaoling District will actively explore how to develop digital countryside based on local conditions. More digital rural development projects will be landed to bring economic benefits. Information technology will give full play to its role in driving agricultural and rural modernization. The District will create a new vision for the digital countryside to help more villagers enjoy an intelligent life and continuously facilitate comprehensive rural revitalization. (Peng Changdi, Wu Yuting and Wu Yuanhang)