Alibaba AI helps farmers grow apples and melons

Simon HU, Senior Vice President of Alibaba Group and President of Alibaba Cloud said: “At Alibaba Cloud, we are committed to using our world-class technology to resolve real-life problems. For this reason, we launched ET Agricultural Brain with a number of partners in the agriculture sector. In future, ET Agricultural Brain can be adopted across many other sectors, including forestry and fisheries, helping enterprises and individual farmers increase efficiency and improve quality of production and providing a greener and healthier option for consumers.”

The AI programme has enhanced fruit and vegetable planting for these two producers. Photo: Penn Communicatie/Marten Sandburg

Apples and melons

Early adopters of ET Agricultural Brain include Haisheng Group, a company that operates 55 orchards of more than 4,000 hectares and Guoqiang Modern Farming, a Shaanxi-based rural cooperative that produces high quality melons. The AI programme has enhanced fruit and vegetable planting for these 2 producers. For Haisheng, the growth parameters of about 10,000 acres of apple trees are converged to the ET Agriculture Brain automatically, saving an estimated RMB20 million (USD$ 3.1 million) in operating costs annually for the farm.

For Haisheng, the growth parameters of about 10,000 acres of apple trees are converged to the ET Agriculture Brain automatically, saving an estimated RMB20 million in operating costs annually. Photo: Erik van ‘t Woud

By better connecting the government, enterprises and farmers, Alibaba Cloud helps farmers sell their fruit and vegetables more effectively, in order to increase their income.