2026中央一号文件首次写入无人机和机器人 2026 Central Document No.1: Drones and Robots Written for the First Time

Industry Background

The 2026 Central Document No.1 has written "expand the application scenarios of drones, IoT, and robots" into policy text for the first time, marking a historic turning point in China's agricultural intelligence transition from "pilot exploration" to "large-scale promotion." This major policy signal responds to the urgent needs of agricultural modernization for technology and预示着 profound smart transformation of Chinese agriculture.

The document explicitly proposes to "develop new quality productive forces in agriculture according to local conditions and promote the combination of artificial intelligence and agricultural development," providing a clear direction for agricultural technology innovation. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs shows that by the end of 2025, China's agricultural production informatization rate reached 28.3%, only one step away from the 2026 target of 30%. The smart agriculture market exceeded 300 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of over 15%.

Behind the policy escalation are the real challenges facing agricultural production: the aging of rural population is accelerating, the outflow of young and middle-aged labor is continuing, and "who will farm" has become the core bottleneck restricting agricultural modernization. Traditional agricultural production methods are inefficient, costly, and imprecise, urgently needing intelligent transformation.

AI Application Scenarios

1. Intelligent Plant Protection Flying

Drones equipped with multispectral sensors and high-precision positioning systems achieve rapid inspection and precise pesticide application of agricultural conditions. Through AI algorithms, pest and disease distribution areas are identified, generating "variable operation prescription maps" for targeted pesticide application. Compared with traditional manual spraying, drone plant protection efficiency is improved by more than 10 times, pesticide use is reduced by 30%. In 2025, the national plant protection drone operation area exceeded 2.67 billion mu-times, with both indicators ranking first globally.

2. Farmland Digital Twin

Fusing satellite remote sensing, drone aerial photography, ground IoT sensors and other multi-source data, a "virtual farmland" is built in the cloud to achieve all-area, all-time, all-element monitoring of the farmland environment. The digital twin system can simulate crop growth status in real-time and generate instructions in milliseconds based on AI models.

3. Accelerated Intelligent Breeding

AI bioinformatics algorithms process massive amounts of genotypic and phenotypic data to predict crop genetic potential, dramatically shortening the breeding cycle. The "Tiangong Kaiwu" agricultural large model 2.0 directly reduced production costs by 10% and increased yields by 5%.

4. Precision Water and Fertilizer Management

Based on crop growth models and soil moisture data, precise irrigation and variable fertilization are achieved. Applications show that water and fertilizer management under AI guidance can improve water resource utilization by 50%, reduce fertilizer use by 30%, and increase crop yields by 15%.

5. Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Scheduling

Integrating BeiDou navigation systems and AI scheduling algorithms to achieve intelligent planning and efficient coordination of agricultural machinery operations. In Heilongjiang, the intelligent machinery scheduling system improved machinery operation efficiency by 60%, reduced fuel consumption by 25%, and reduced labor costs by 35%.

6. Intelligent Pest and Disease Early Warning

Multi-agent collaborative systems collect more than 20 farmland parameters in real-time, accurately identify pest and disease types and deduce spread patterns. The pest and disease identification accuracy reaches 95%, achieving 7-10 days early warning.

7. Agricultural Product Traceability Management

Blockchain + AI full-chain traceability records the full lifecycle data of agricultural products from field to table. Brand agricultural product premium space increases by 15%-20%.

8. Deep-sea Intelligent Aquaculture

Building an "ocean neural network" based on AI and IoT technology to achieve intelligent control of aquaculture. Fujian's "Qiandong" deep-sea aquaculture platform can withstand typhoons above level 16 and produces about 200 tons of high-quality large yellow croaker annually.

Typical Cases

Case 1: Full-process Unmanned Operation at Guangdong Wanlv Smart Farm

Located in Dongyuan County, Guangdong, Wanlv Smart Farm achieved full-process unmanned operation of rice "planting, cultivating, managing, harvesting" with research support from academician Luo Xiwen's team.

Case 2: Dengzhou, Henan "Hui Geng Yun" Large Model Platform

The "Hui Geng Yun" large model in Dengzhou builds a sky-earth-ground integrated monitoring system, covering 20,000 mu of entrusted farmland, achieving per-mu cost savings and efficiency gains of more than 500 yuan.

Case 3: Zhejiang Qiuwo Intelligent AlphaFarm

The world's first AlphaFarm autonomous evolution decision-making unmanned farm system achieves 100% autonomous decision-making execution rate with continuous learning and optimization.

Case 4: Sichuan Qingshen "1+7+52" Agricultural Machinery Cloud Platform

The platform integrates 2,965 agricultural machinery units, improving equipment utilization by 40% and reducing per-mu costs by 116 yuan.

Case 5: Xinjiang Magaiti County Wuzheng Farm Hybrid Tractors

Hybrid tractors work 400 mu per day compared to 300 mu for traditional tractors, increasing income by 90,000 yuan per operation season.

Tool Recommendations

• Shennong Large Model 3.0 - Covers 90% of agricultural disciplines with 36 specialized agents
• Jiajia Nong AI Platform - Precise meteorological prediction with massive knowledge base
• DJI Agricultural Drones - 335,000+ drones with 3.3 billion mu-times annual operations
• Dongfanghong Unmanned Tractor - 2.5cm deviation per kilometer with 450HP model
• Zhenlin No.1 Unmanned Sprinkler - 400+ mu/day coverage with 100+ hours continuous operation

Future Trends

• From "Automatic" to "Autonomous" - Making agricultural machinery capable of seeing, calculating, and working on its own
• Agricultural Large Model Popularization - Regional and crop-specific models becoming standard
• Sky-Earth-Ground Integration Upgrade - Centimeter-level precision and real-time warning
• Large-scale Unmanned Farm Promotion - 1,000 smart farms by 2030
• County-level AI Service Platforms - One-stop services reaching the "last mile"
• Business Model Innovation - SaaS, revenue sharing, carbon trading models
• Standards Improvement - National standards for data security and device compatibility

Reflection and Practice

The 2026 Central Document No.1's first inclusion of drones and robots marks the official entry of Chinese agriculture into the intelligent era. This is a systematic reshaping of agricultural production methods, farmers' lifestyles, and rural governance models.

As agricultural practitioners or observers, we should actively embrace intelligent technology, pay attention to policy direction, promote data sharing, explore diversified cooperation models, and focus on talent cultivation.

The future of smart agriculture is here. When there are eyes and ears in the fields, brains in the clouds, and doctors on the ground, our rice bowls can be held more steadily and better.