A drone is used on a farm in Rugao, a county-level city in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/WeChat account: rugaofabu]

Rugao, a county-level city in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province was recently included on the 2022 list of the provincial full-scale mechanization demonstration counties for agricultural production released by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Jiangsu Province.

In 2022, a total of 17 million yuan ($2.49 million) will be invested to raise the mechanization level of agriculture, fishery, animal husbandry and primary processing of agricultural products.

In the first half of this year, the city added 294 sets of intelligent agricultural machinery equipment such as plant protection drones, agricultural Beidou terminals, and intelligent monitoring terminals, and the number of sets of intelligent agricultural machinery and equipment reached 810.

Rugao has also been striving to cultivate automated farms, and two automated farms at the municipal level were built.

In addition, the city has promoted the use of clean energy dryers. In the first half of this year, 70 grain dryers were transformed into air source heat pump dryers, and the proportion of clean heat source dryers among total grain dryers is expected to reach 65 percent by the end of the year.