Intelligent farming machines highlight agricultural exhibition in Hunan

Chinese farming machines featuring cutting-edge smart technologies have become the highlight of the 2024 China International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition, which took place from Saturday to Monday in Changsha, capital city of central China's Hunan Province.

The exhibition is dubbed as the "barometer" of China's agricultural machinery industry and one of the largest in Asia.

Chinese exhibitor Yang Shangxiang brought a new CVT tractor to the event, which can save a lot of labor for farmers and greatly enhance farming efficiency.

"The tractor displayed by us uses CVT transmissions, which means you can drive it forward or backward and change its speed by simply moving your fingers, without the need to press your foot on the clutch. This effectively saves labor for us and can enhance the farming efficiency by 30 percent," said Yang.

Other exhibitors have applied green and smart technologies on their products in order to win more customers and obtain a larger market share.

Latest data from the China Agricultural Machinery Distribution Association showed that the sales volume of China's homegrown automatic navigation systems for farming machines reached 110,000 units last year, marking a new historical breakthrough.

Foreign buyers were amazed by China's progress in the agricultural machinery industry as the farming machines made by Chinese enterprises have become more specialized compared with the past when one machine often served multiple purposes.

The complete agricultural machinery industrial chain built by China has allayed foreign buyers' worries about the post-sales repair and maintenance services.

"We have many labor problems to harvest these things, so I want to visit this expo. Yeah, it is very, very nice. Actually, I'm looking for these harvesters and also some planters here," said Srinivasa Rao, an Indian farm owner.

"We have a total of 20,000 hectares of farms across our country, on which we grow vegetables, wheat, oilseed rape, potatoes, sunflower seeds and other crops. We attended the exhibition many times before and come here again. We purchase more and more agricultural technologies and equipment from China now," said a Russian farm owner named Andrei Anatolyevich.

Hu Xiaosi, a farmer from east China's Nanjing City, wanted to purchase a higher-horsepower tractor at the exhibition as the old one couldn't meet his demands any more. Over the past few years, the land managed by him has increased from 800 mu (about 53.34 hectares) to 1,800 mu (about 120 hectares).

"In terms of agricultural machinery, the machines we bought five years ago have been gradually phased out by us because they can't satisfy the operation efficiency we need now. We have contracted a large amount of land in recent years, which needs high-horsepower and highly-efficient farming machines to operate," said Hu.

More than 2,600 Chinese and foreign exhibitors have signed up for the exhibition, which covers a total area of 250,000 square meters and attracted over 200,000 visits.

Intelligent farming machines highlight agricultural exhibition in Hunan

The Silk Road Carnival, an important part of the ongoing 10th Silk Road International Arts Festival, concluded on Friday in Xi'an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi in northwest China, and a starting point of the ancient trade route.

The five-day carnival that started on October 21 gathered artists from different countries and offered a visual feast with the charm of art and diverse cultures of the countries along the Silk Road. The performances of traditional dances and modern music, folk music instruments and symphonies highlighted the carnival's closing ceremony on Friday, displaying the diversity and inclusiveness of the Silk Road culture.

"It's an important event, as it promotes artistic and cultural exchanges between different countries," said Valle, a Spanish dancer.

For Zhang Zhaoyu, a Qinqiang Opera performer, the art event also provided opportunities for overseas artists and audience to understand more about the local Chinese opera.

"This is an encounter between Chinese and Western culture. Westerners are passionate and hot on stage, while our Oriental culture is characterized with subdued elegance, like what our Chinese traditional operas display. Our traditional operas demonstrate a kind of Oriental beauty. We just took advantage of such a platform [of the festival] to present the culture of Qinqiang Opera of Shaanxi to Western guests and artists, so that they could see how extensive and profound our Chinese art is," said Zhang.

First held back in 2014, this year's Silk Road International Arts Festival, sponsored by the provincial government of Shaanxi, will run until November 10.

The event has attracted artists from 15 countries and regions, while a total of 63 performances are scheduled alongside a series of activities including multiple shows and exhibitions, according to organizers.

Silk Road Carnival concludes in Xi'an