AI innovations in smart blueberry farming

China produces close to 350 mn tonnes of fruit every year—around a third of the global output

With domestic demand on the rise, especially from the expanding middle and lower-middle classes, improving fruit production through technology has become a national priority.

The government’s “2024–28 Four-Year Smart Agriculture Plan” encourages the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, big data, satellite navigation (Beidou), and national agricultural data systems to boost food security. Farms are now using a combination of precision agriculture, automation, and sensor technologies linked to IoT networks for real-time monitoring and control.

In Guangdong and Maoming, 5G-enabled sensors monitor key variables like soil moisture, pH levels, temperature, and pest presence. This data is used to automatically manage irrigation and fertilisation. Companies like Nongbo Innovation and Haisheng Group have introduced IoT systems that assign QR codes to individual trees, improving traceability from farm to consumer.

China also makes use of more than 200 agricultural drones for surveying and spraying. Firms such as XAG, FJ Dynamics, and EAVision are developing smart robots capable of autonomous driving, spraying, and harvesting. Trials are underway on robotic pruning platforms that use machine learning and computer vision to work on apple trees, grapevines, and cherry orchards. With LiDAR-camera fusion, these systems can identify fruit with millimetre accuracy, enabling precise automated harvesting. At China Agricultural University, researchers have created AI-powered smart glasses with augmented reality to help identify diseases, guide pruning, and reduce human error.

Blueberry farming has seen major growth, increasing more than tenfold in the past decade. By 2024, China had over 80 hectares in cultivation, producing over 500 tonnes, making it Asia’s largest blueberry producer and one of the biggest globally. Shandong has bred eight new varieties that ripen earlier, resist disease better, and yield 10% more. AI and big data are being used to speed up breeding through high-throughput phenotyping.

In Huaining, Anhui, smart greenhouses use IoT systems to automate climate and soil conditions. Just one operator can manage tens of thousands of plants using mobile monitoring, bringing harvests forward by two months and doubling yield compared to open fields. In Qidong, Jiangsu, a 21.3-hectare high-tech farm with controlled CO₂ levels and IoT sensors brings in around 200 mn yuan (US$28 mn) annually with only three workers. Langxi, also in Anhui, has 3.3 hectares of greenhouse blueberries with full 5G control for irrigation and nutrition via mobile devices.

Research is ongoing into drones that use the YOLO computer vision model to detect fruit and bushes, improving yield forecasts, sampling, and logistics.

By 2030, China’s blueberry acreage is expected to reach 120 hectares with production surpassing 900 tonnes. The country is also eyeing expansion into value-added products like juice, powder, and cosmetics, as well as increased exports to Europe and the Middle East.