Beijing’s annual No.1 document — the political mile‑marker for rural policy — has for 2026 put artificial intelligence squarely on the agenda for agricultural modernization. The Central Committee and State Council explicitly call for “promoting the integration of artificial intelligence with agricultural development,” signalling that the next phase of China’s rural revitalization will be technology‑led rather than merely subsidy driven.
The paper ties AI to a broader package of measures: stronger science and technology platforms, accelerated conversion of research into applications, investment in high‑end intelligent farm machinery suitable for hilly and mountainous areas, and a renewed emphasis on seed industry revitalization and biological breeding. It also directs action to expand real‑world applications — from drones and the Internet of Things to robots — and to speed up key innovations in agricultural bio‑manufacturing.
Official data cited in the background to the policy show substantial recent progress: agricultural science and technology contributed over 64% to yield improvements in 2025; mechanization of planting, tending and harvesting reached 76.7%; and farm drones in China exceeded 300,000 units, covering some 4.6 billion mu of cropland. Those figures suggest pilots and early deployments have moved beyond laboratory novelty into commercial scale in particular niches.
The document dovetails with market moves. Listed agricultural and agri‑tech firms are already investing in intelligent breeding platforms, AI‑enabled cost reductions in livestock operations, and robotics for production and processing. Beijing’s instructions to deepen reforms of agricultural research institutes and to rebuild the extension system — alongside a push for “new agricultural disciplines” in universities — make clear that talent and institutional change are seen as central to turning experiments into a nationwide transformation.
For Chinese policymakers, the case for AI is pragmatic: labour shortages in the countryside, fragmented farm plots, and historically coarse management practices are persistent constraints on farm productivity. Advanced sensors, large models trained on agricultural data, mechanized harvesting and precision inputs promise to raise yields, cut waste and reduce reliance on seasonal migrant labour — all of which have domestic political as well as economic appeal.
The international implications are multifaceted. A successful AI‑driven upgrade would boost China’s food‑security resilience and create export opportunities for Chinese agri‑robots, drones and seed technologies. It could also sharpen competition in global seed markets and in agricultural biotech, where breakthroughs have strategic as well as commercial value.
Challenges remain. Scaling beyond high‑value crops and pilot regions will demand financing models that work for smallholders, interoperability standards for the IoT and robust data governance. Regulatory issues around biological breeding and the commercialization of new seed varieties could slow parts of the agenda, and endemic problems — fragmented land holdings, ageing rural populations, and uneven digital infrastructure — will test how rapidly “single‑point breakthroughs” can become “whole‑chain integration.”
If implemented, the No.1 document is likely to accelerate private and state investment in agri‑AI, favour firms that can deliver integrated hardware‑software services, and reorient agricultural research and education toward applied, cross‑disciplinary problems. The policy sets expectations for a decade in which Chinese agriculture is likely to become markedly more instrumented, data‑driven and automated.