China’s Greenhouse Revolution

We are sincerely gratified to have you as our subscriber. As most of what is discussed about China by mainstream media outlets is either inaccurate or misleading, we have recognized the need for someone to provide you with comprehensive and genuine insights on the country’s unique agritech ecosystem. This project is dedicated to showing you the true side of China’s agricultural evolution.

Our goal is to unpack the stories, innovations, and market movements that really matter—beyond the headlines and surface-level coverage. Each week, we bring you actionable insights and a clear view of how China’s agritech landscape is shaping the future of food and farming globally.

DJI’s agricultural drones have become indispensable for Brazilian farmers. The country’s vast farmland, low mechanization rates, and labor-intensive spraying methods created the perfect conditions for DJI’s entry. Traditional spraying could take up to 16 days, while DJI drones complete the same work in just 12–15 hours. With prices at only one-third of Western competitors, the cost–benefit advantage has driven rapid adoption across crops like coffee and sugarcane.

By the way, DJI has also published its 2024/2025 white paper on the agricultural drone industry. You can access the full document (in Chinese) here. [1] [2]

Guizhou University has secured approval for China’s first national high-quality multimodal crop protection dataset, making it one of six pilot projects nationwide and the only one in Guizhou Province. With an initial investment of RMB 900 million, the project will build a smart plant protection data service platform designed to support complex agricultural applications, strengthen data-driven decision-making, and accelerate the adoption of AI in crop protection. The program was selected among 140 national pilot projects announced at the 2025 China International Big Data Industry Expo. [1]

Shanghai-based startup Azure Engine (蔚蓝引擎) , China’s first company dedicated to laser weeding robots, has raised an angel round led by Compass Navigation to fuel R&D, mass production, and global expansion. Azure Engine was founded in 2022 and is already pioneering the replacement of herbicides and manual labor with AI-powered, laser-based precision weeding. Its robots can identify weeds in milliseconds, eliminate over 120,000 per hour, and cut costs to just 20–30% of manual weeding. China’s agricultural robotics sector is booming, with domestic demand valued at ¥89.6 billion and overseas markets estimated at US$102 billion. [1]

As one of China’s most traditional industries, tea production is now embracing digital transformation through the rise of the Smart Tea Garden (智慧茶园) model. Developed by Top Cloud Agri (托普云农科技集团股份有限公司), the solution integrates big data, IoT, AI, and intelligent equipment to create a comprehensive digital tea garden management platform. The platform delivers precision tools such as frost warning systems, yield forecasting, intelligent water and fertilizer control, drone crop protection, full-chain traceability, and online tourism guides. It builds a closed-loop system of monitoring–decision–execution for fine-tuned crop management. [1]