China’s drive to grow 90 per cent of its own grain by 2032 just gained a critical weapon: an unmanned ratoon rice farm that produces 50 per cent higher yields.

By harnessing smart seedling care, sowing, growing and harvesting, a Chinese biotechnology company and scientists from several institutes have built the world’s first smart farm for regenerated rice.

Located in the Datong Lake District in China’s central Hunan province, the smart rice farm has enabled an ancient but technically challenging technique of harvesting the second rice crop grown from the stubble of the first harvest.

“The agricultural machinery goes to the fields, but I don’t go to the fields,” Xiong Jiaojun, the founder of Hunan Hongshuo Biotechnology Co, which is leading the project, told the China News Network on March 15.

Built in 2023, the farm has nearly 33 hectares (82 acres) of experimental fields, with the entire intelligent, minimally staffed base covering 200 hectares.

This year, Xiong said they deployed 20 sets of unmanned machinery, which can cover 666 hectares of rice fields.