The rise of smart agriculture in China: current situation and suggestions for further development

Summary Smart agriculture is based on latest technologies in communication, big data analysis, high-performance sensors, and automatic machinery to improve the effectiveness of agriculture industry. China is looking forward to achieve modernization of its agriculture industry through smart agriculture. But its unique climate, landscape, diversity in crops, and large population make this task more challenging compared to other counties. Herein, we present the current achievements regarding policies made to guide and support the development of smart agriculture, the promotion of smart techniques and smart equipment, and the cultivation of specialists in smart agriculture. Then we discussed the existing challenges that hinder further development of smart agriculture industry and proposed several feasible solutions to solve or ease the problem, including the pertinent development of smart agriculture in provinces with different resources, enrich modes of online technical support and specialist cultivation, and set a series of standards to guide research and development of novel smart systems.