Xi’an Promotes Smart Agriculture and International Cooperation
The north-western Chinese city of Xi’an showed off its work on smart farm machinery and digital crop monitoring and proposed cooperation with partner towns overseas on collaborative research, machinery demonstrations and exchanges of agricultural technicians.
The recommendations were presented by the city agriculture officials at a forum on technology and agriculture during the 2026 China International Friendship Cities Conference held in Xi’an from Oct. 20-22.
In Xi’an, the development of agricultural technology is based on collaboration between research institutes, equipment makers and farms. Special attention is given to compact, smart machines for use on plots and terrain that are difficult to work with traditional equipment, e.g. hillsides, loess tablelands, greenhouses and small, fragmented fields.
The Xi’an Municipal Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau said the mechanisation rate of ploughing, seeding and harvesting of major crops in Xi’an has already exceeded 89.7 percent. The bureau said more than 70% of the increase was also due to advancements in agricultural research and technology.
It has also developed a smart agriculture monitoring platform that combines satellite, aerial and ground-based sensing with the Internet of Things and AI. The platform monitors conditions on fields, soil moisture, crop growth and indicators of pests and disease, allowing farmers to spot problems sooner. The city is also developing sophisticated drip irrigation systems to enable the supply of water and fertiliser.
Xi’an now has a 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) chain of industries producing dairy, vegetables and kiwifruit, and a 5 billion yuan chain of industries producing grapes. The city organises seed breeding, cultivation and processing, and applies smart testing and digital traceability technologies for quality control to maintain the quality of these sectors.
Xi’an is also a national pilot city for the whole-process quality monitoring of high-grade speciality agricultural products, the introduction said. Its agricultural testing facility has five national agricultural product testing authorisations, the only local organisation in China with such a number.
The recommendations for cooperation are based on Xi’an’s existing global linkages in agricultural research and trade. It is home to the China-New Zealand Belt-and-Road Joint Laboratory on Kiwifruit Shaanxi facility, a bilateral research partnership. The city exports speciality agricultural items including as kiwifruit, pomegranates, flowers and others to 26 countries and regions, some of which are shipped by the China-Europe Railway Express freight service.
Xi’an Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said the city hopes to use the meeting to expand cooperation in agriculture. Its recommendations included experience sharing in smart agriculture and digital rural development, smart machinery displays and joint research, and two-way learning and exchanges of agricultural technicians.
It also called for studying mutual recognition of agricultural product standards, promoting commerce and building markets for green agricultural products. The agency stated cooperation would be adapted to the needs and circumstances of each partner city.
The agribusiness forum was one of four forums running in parallel at the conference, which attracted over 700 visitors, including local government leaders from 61 nations. The other forums were on urban development, environmental protection and cultural heritage, with participants signing a series of friendship city and cooperation agreements.
Xi’an, where the old Silk Road began, has 42 friendship cities in 35 nations and 73 friendly exchange cities in 44 countries. Through organisations like the Euro-Asia Economic Forum, United Cities and Local Governments and the League of Historical Cities, it has partnered on urban planning, heritage protection, resilience and technology with partners.
Picture Source:Xi’an Municipal Government