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CHANGCHUN, April 13-- Satellites, drones and pest-detecting cameras are making their way into rice paddies in China's major farming province as the country modernizes its agriculture, experts said. A satellite can produce images of a 200 square km field in just half an hour and offer information such as growth, yield and seedling emergence rate of the crops, said Qu Chunlai, with Changguang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd. The company's Jilin-1 satellite are widely applied in agriculture and forestry in northeast China's Jilin Province. "The remote sensing satellite captures images of the vegetation and forms data according to the proportion of different wavelengths of light the plants reflect," Qu said. So far, several counties in the province have set up zones piloting the method. The changing faming methods in the small counties in China's rice powerhouse underline the marriage of cutting-edge technology and traditional farming powered by efforts of both private and public sectors. Apart from companies like Changguang, local scientific research institutes are joining the race to digitalize farming. A whirring drone carrying a camera flew over fields in the city of Gongzhuling in Jilin. Unlike normal cameras, the one mounted on the drone gathers data. Called a multispectral camera, the camera weighs just 190 g. It is connected to software and shares data on crop growth, as well as disease and pest conditions. | 
