Alibaba Cloud’s AI Technology Helps Farmers To Increase Productivity

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The agriculture community in China is getting ahead of the curve when it comes to implementing new technologies. Tequ group, a pork production company based in China’s Sichuan province, is targeting to breed 10 million hogs by 2020 – a scale that no ordinary automation system could cope with. The company says it’s confident about achieving the goal thanks to Alibaba Cloud’s ET Agricultural Brain.

Officially launched today at the Alibaba Cloud Computing Conference 2018: Shanghia Summit, the Alibaba Cloud ET Agricultural Brain has been adopted already by a number of leading pork production and fruit and vegetable agribusinesses in China. The cutting-edge AI technology holds the promise to driving a revolution in the agriculture sector through helping enterprises and individual farmers increase efficiency and improve quality of production and providing a greener and healthier food option for consumers.

By applying AI technologies, such as visual recognition, voice recognition and real-time environmental parameter monitoring, ET Agricultural Brain monitors each hog’s daily activity, growth indicators, pregnancy and other health conditions, bringing more insight throughout the pork production industry chain. By processing data and training algorithm models based on machine learning technology, ET Agricultural Brain allows farm managers to monitor the farm and the animals in real time. For example:

  • The system will automatically prescribe a plan of activity to improve the health and yield of hogs.
  • The program will also be able to detect sick hogs and protect smaller piglets from safety accidents through the introduction of voice recognition technology.
  • Multiple meters are installed to collect data in order to optimize the environment for the herd to grow, as well as reducing human errors in the farming process.

It is estimated that ET Agricultural Brain could increase a sow’s annual production by three more newborns, while reducing unnatural death by 3%. Hogs per sow per year (PSY), an important efficiency indicator for the industry, is estimated to be increased to 32.

ET Agricultural Brain builds upon the success of Alibaba Cloud’s self-developed AI technology that has already been applied in transportation, industrial and aviation sectors, and extends its application to agriculture.

Please refer to the Alizila story (http://www.alizila.com/ai-better-pork-china/ ) for more details about ET Agricultural Brain. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Roger Zhang

International Corporate Affairs,

Alibaba Group US

+1 917-558-6457

[email protected]

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