Industrial transition from mechanization to intelligence

During the 2026 Two Sessions, agricultural mechanization and intelligence will become the focus of attention for representatives and committee members. Liu Yonghao, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, proposed to include artificial intelligence equipment for animal husbandry in the list of agricultural machinery purchase subsidies. He suggested providing tax incentives to enterprises that adopt artificial intelligence breeding technology and establishing a national major special project for artificial intelligence breeding. Wu De, a National People's Congress representative and president of Sichuan Agricultural University, focused on the problem of agricultural mechanization in hilly and mountainous areas, called for the revision of the Agricultural Mechanization Promotion Law, and proposed the research and development of lightweight agricultural machinery and equipment suitable for hilly areas.

The government work report sets the tone: strategic upgrade from "ensuring supply" to "optimizing supply"

In the 2026 government work report, Premier Li Qiang first proposed the strategic statement of "promoting the integration and efficiency improvement of good farmland, good seeds, good opportunities, and good laws", marking the shift of China's agricultural development from single factor input to total factor productivity improvement. The report clearly sets a grain output of around 1.4 trillion catties as the main expected target for this year's economic and social development, and emphasizes the need to "deeply implement the seed industry revitalization action, accelerate the selection and promotion of breakthrough varieties, promote the research and application of advanced and applicable agricultural machinery and equipment, and bridge the 'last mile' of agricultural technology promotion".



The profound changes in this policy statement are of great significance - after the total grain output has stood at a new level of 1.4 trillion catties for two consecutive years, China's concept of food security is quietly upgrading. In the past, we were more concerned about whether there was, but now we are more concerned about whether it is good or not and the cost. The core of the integrated efficiency improvement of "good farmland, good seeds, good opportunities, and good methods" lies in the word "integration", which means no longer relying solely on breakthroughs in a certain technology, but pursuing systematic optimization of production factors.

Ministerial Channel Explanation: Practical Path of Intelligent Transformation

On March 9th, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Han Jun elaborated in detail on the significant improvement of agricultural technology and equipment conditions in China during the 14th Five Year Plan period: the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress has exceeded 64%, the coverage rate of high-quality crop varieties has exceeded 96%, the comprehensive mechanization rate of crop cultivation and harvesting has reached 76.7%, and major grain crops have basically achieved full mechanization.



Han Jun specifically pointed out that the intelligent and digital transformation of agriculture is accelerating, and various intelligent equipment is demonstrating its capabilities in agricultural production. Last year, we had over 300000 agricultural drones, the largest in the world. We served 460 million acres of arable land, and now intelligent harvesting robots, irrigation robots, AI laser weeding robots, and more are also being used in agriculture. ”

In terms of seed industry innovation, Han Jun revealed that China has established a national crop and livestock germplasm resource bank, developed the "Fengdeng" intelligent breeding model, created the world's first intelligent breeding robot "Ji'er", and cultivated a batch of high-yield, high-quality, and multi resistant breakthrough varieties.

Policy East Wind: From "Inclusive Subsidies" to "Optimal Machine Subsidies"

In 2026, the No. 1 central document clearly listed the development of agricultural machinery and equipment as a priority, and for the first time, "high-end intelligence" and "suitable for hilly and mountainous areas" agricultural machinery were deployed side by side. The Implementation Opinions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs further strengthen the mechanism of "optimizing machines and subsidies", with a maximum subsidy ratio of up to 40%, focusing on equipment such as high-power intelligent tractors, drones, and grain dryers.



Nearly 20 provinces across the country have announced specific implementation plans, forming a policy pattern of "national direction and local detailed rules". Shandong provides a maximum subsidy of 250000 yuan for four-wheel drive intelligent tractors with 280 horsepower and above; Zhejiang will include intelligent tea picking machines and fruit photoelectric grading machines in special subsidies; Hunan has clarified that by the end of 2026, hand guided tractors will be completely removed from the subsidy list.

Industry Breakthrough: Four Major Development Directions Guide the Future

High end intelligence: Products such as 300 horsepower continuously variable transmission tractors and high-speed electric drive seeders have broken foreign monopolies, and the penetration rate of Beidou navigation and AI fault diagnosis technology in the agricultural machinery field has been increasing year by year. Weichai Lovol has released the first domestic AI model for smart agriculture, promoting the transition from "making agricultural machinery" to "providing smart agricultural solutions".



Hill adaptation: The agricultural machinery and equipment cluster in the hilly and mountainous areas of Jintai, Zhejiang has gathered more than 1900 enterprises to develop unmanned tracked tractors that can operate on 25 ° steep slopes, solving the pain point of skidding and sinking in southern hilly areas. Provinces in hilly and mountainous areas across the country have generally increased their support for lightweight, applicable, and multifunctional machinery.

New energy: The fuel saving rate of hybrid tractors has reached 25%, and breakthroughs have been made in both pure electric and hydrogen fuel routes. New energy enterprises such as Lingong Agricultural Machinery are accelerating their layout in the low-carbon agricultural machinery track. Jiangsu, Gansu, Xinjiang and other provinces (regions) have introduced special subsidy schemes for high-end intelligent new energy tractors.



Full chain coverage: The subsidy focus extends from traditional tillage machinery to post production processes such as drying, storage, crop protection, and straw processing, filling the gap of "heavy production and light storage". Especially for grain drying machinery, the cumulative sales of grain drying machines in China will reach 11694 units by 2025, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%.

Market Transformation: From "Incremental Expansion" to "Stock Optimization"

In 2026, the agricultural machinery market is showing a trend of "two hot ends": there is a strong demand for large high-end agricultural machinery in plain areas, and characteristic small agricultural machinery in hilly and mountainous areas has become a new growth point. Data shows that there are over 300000 agricultural drones in China, with an annual operating area exceeding 460 million mu, and a contribution rate of over 64% to agricultural technological progress.



Enterprises such as DJI Agriculture have reduced pesticide usage by 90% through technological optimization, achieving a transition from "experience based planting" to "data based planting" in agriculture. At the Jiangshe Modern Agriculture Demonstration Park in Xiangtan, Hunan, sensors collect soil data, cameras monitor growth, and drones screen for pests and diseases. After the data is aggregated to the cloud, it can accurately guide cultivation, eliminate water and fertilizer waste, and quietly improve quality.

Challenges and opportunities coexist

Despite the release of policy dividends, the industry still faces three major challenges: the localization rate of core components for large agricultural machinery with over 250 horsepower is less than 10%, and key hydraulic and transmission systems rely on imports; The mechanization rate in hilly and mountainous areas is about 11 percentage points lower than the national average level; The collaborative mechanism between industry, academia, research and application is not smooth, and there is a lack of pilot platforms to accelerate technological maturity.

Minister Han Jun emphasized that the next step will be to deepen the implementation of the seed industry revitalization action, cultivate and promote more breakthrough new varieties, achieve self-reliance and self strengthening of seed industry technology, independent and controllable seed sources, and accelerate a new round of variety updates and replacements. At the same time, it is necessary to comprehensively improve the post production processing and processing level of agricultural products, carry out grading and quality evaluation, accelerate the filling of gaps in cold chain logistics and storage preservation, and solidly promote variety cultivation, quality improvement, brand building, and standardized production.

The representative committee suggested breaking through technological bottlenecks by establishing a major special fund for agricultural machinery technology, innovating school enterprise cooperation models, and encouraging leading enterprises to form innovation consortia with research institutes. In the next three years, China's agricultural machinery and equipment industry is expected to achieve a leap from "large quantity and wide coverage" to "high-precision and advanced", injecting mechanical strength and technological momentum into the construction of an agricultural powerhouse.