Modern facility cultivation is a key industry for expanding food supply sources and ensuring a stable "vegetable basket." The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China called for embracing a big food concept, developing facility agriculture, and building a diversified food supply system. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other departments issued the National Modern Facility Agriculture Construction Plan (2023-2030), listing the construction of modern facility cultivation focused on energy-saving and machinery-friendly models as a key task. In recent years, the mechanization and digitalization levels of facility cultivation have steadily improved, and the development foundation has been continuously consolidated.

China's facility cultivation industry has reached a considerable scale, and its capacity for stable production and supply has continued to strengthen. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the area of cultivation facilities reached approximately 40 million mu, with annual facility vegetable output exceeding 200 million tonnes. Facility cultivation breaks through some natural conditions and seasonal constraints, improves the utilization efficiency of land, water, and fertilizer resources, and also provides new pathways for utilizing non-traditional agricultural production spaces such as gobi deserts and saline-alkali land. On the one hand, facility equipment and mechanization levels have steadily improved. Technologies and equipment such as automatic roller blinds, mechanical tillage, and integrated water-fertilizer systems have been rapidly popularized, and facility production is gradually shifting from primarily manual operations to mechanized and automated operations. Greenhouse environment regulation has also developed from single-parameter control to coordinated regulation of multiple parameters including temperature, humidity, and light, with inspection robots, rail transport, and plant protection equipment entering more production scenarios. On the other hand, digital and intelligent applications have continued to expand. The Internet of Things, machine vision, intelligent sensing, and artificial intelligence are gradually entering facility production, and some tomato and leafy vegetable production scenarios have achieved real-time environmental monitoring, remote control, and precise water-fertilizer management. Some demonstration parks have begun connecting sensor devices, intelligent equipment, and management platforms, laying the foundation for facility production to shift from single-equipment application to systematic management.

Currently, the focus of China's facility cultivation development is shifting from scale expansion to quality improvement and efficiency enhancement, but some shortcomings and weaknesses remain. First, the machinery-friendliness foundation of existing facilities is weak, and coordination among facilities, agricultural machinery, and agronomy is insufficient. Some greenhouses were built early, with low structures, narrow passages, and limited working space, and the adaptability of planting row spacing, greenhouse door dimensions, and equipment interfaces to modern agricultural machinery is inadequate. The level of automation in labor-intensive links such as transplanting, pruning, and harvesting needs improvement. Facility construction, agricultural machinery research and development, and agronomic models are relatively separated, increasing the difficulty and cost of later renovation. Second, the application of digital and intelligent technologies still suffers from the problem of "many single points but little coordination." Although some facility vegetable planting bases have been equipped with environmental sensors, water-fertilizer equipment, and intelligent control terminals, the data formats, communication protocols, and interfaces of equipment from different manufacturers are not yet unified, and "data silos" still exist. Some digital applications remain at the monitoring level, and collected data has not been fully transformed into production decisions; there is also a lack of effective linkage between information on crop growth, diseases, and maturity and environmental regulation and mechanical operations. At the same time, the independent supply capacity of some high-performance sensors, core components, and intelligent equipment remains insufficient, and the adaptability of algorithm models across different climate zones, crops, and varieties also needs improvement. Third, the threshold for energy-saving and green renovation cannot be ignored. Facility production requires regulation of temperature, light, water, and fertilizer, which brings corresponding energy inputs. Northern regions face greater pressure for insulation and heating in winter, while southern regions face more demand for summer ventilation, cooling, and high-humidity environment regulation. Equipment such as intelligent environmental control, clean energy, and precise water-fertilizer regulation requires relatively high upfront investment and subsequent maintenance, the application capacity of small and medium-sized operating entities is limited, and some mature technologies have not yet moved from the demonstration stage to widespread application.

Energy-saving, machinery-friendly, and high-efficiency have become important directions for the transformation and upgrading of facility cultivation, and digital and intelligent technologies will play a greater role in this process. Going forward, it is necessary to promote quality improvement and efficiency enhancement of facility cultivation through systematic coordination. Promote integrated design. New facilities should coordinate greenhouse span, working passages, planting patterns, equipment interfaces, and machinery access conditions at the planning stage, placing machinery-friendly requirements upfront; old facilities should be renovated by category according to greenhouse type, region, and planting method, focusing on solving problems in greenhouse doors, passages, and working space so that facility conditions better match mechanical equipment and planting patterns. Strengthen innovation in key technologies and equipment. Implement domestic substitution of sensors, achieve key breakthroughs in low-cost, long-life sensors and core components, and lower the threshold for applying intelligent sensing equipment. Strengthen joint research on algorithm models, comprehensively utilize historical production data and mechanistic models, develop models for coordinated environmental regulation and precise water-fertilizer management, and carry out verification and optimization across different climate zones, crops, and varieties. Accelerate the research and development of domestically produced intelligent equipment, and around links such as inspection, transport, plant protection, and harvesting, improve the adaptability, stability, and ease of use of equipment in complex scenarios. At the same time, it is also necessary to improve the compatibility of data interfaces and communication protocols and promote effective connection among sensing, decision-making, and equipment execution. Promote energy conservation and consumption reduction according to local conditions. The development of facility agriculture needs to select appropriate technologies according to different climate zones, facility types, and crop needs. The north should focus on improving greenhouse insulation and heat storage and clean heating capacity, while the south should pay more attention to natural ventilation, shading, and cooling and dehumidification. Areas with conditions can explore the use of clean energy such as photovoltaics and heat pumps. Through environmental and energy consumption monitoring, optimize ventilation, supplemental lighting, irrigation, and fertilization strategies to reduce ineffective energy consumption and water-fertilizer inputs. Improve standards and socialized service systems. Improve standards and specifications around facility structures, mechanical operations, and intelligent equipment, and strengthen product testing, certification, and demonstration verification. In response to the limited investment capacity of small and medium-sized operating entities, services such as equipment leasing, intelligent management and control, and operation and maintenance trusteeship can be developed to transform part of fixed asset investment into service payments, lower the threshold for applying advanced technologies, and strengthen frontline personnel training in equipment operation and digital skills.