CCTV News: In rural areas of my country, infrastructure construction is ushering in a new round of major upgrades. While hardened roads to natural villages (groups) are fully laid out, the large-scale construction of rural digital infrastructure has quietly started.

At the end of 2024, more than 26,000 administrative villages in Sichuan fully realized "village-to-village 5G", and Sichuan's rural broadband users reached 16.44 million, ranking first in the country. On the increasingly solid rural digital base, an agricultural and rural service system integrating "space-sky-earth" from space to low altitude and to the ground is being formed. What development paths will this open up to the countryside?

In Meishan, Sichuan, on the large remote sensing monitoring screen of a local satellite company, the growth of 80 million mu of farmland is fully visible under the monitoring of satellite remote sensing. In space 535 kilometers above the ground, 10 satellites scan these farmlands every month, analyze the growth cycle of rice, wheat and other crops through high-frequency remote sensing images, and combine AI algorithms to "digital portrait" the growth of crops.

When the warning message for poor growth of crops was issued, Wang Zibin, a local grain grower, received the message immediately on his mobile phone. He immediately came to the reminded plot to check the growth of wheat and found that yellow rust had emerged in this field. If it was not dealt with in time, it would spread to other fields.

According to calculations, satellite remote sensing data combines meteorological data to generate yield prediction models, optimize agronomics such as corn dense planting, and increase the single production capacity by 5%-10%. Flying at a low altitude to open up the "last mile" of express delivery into the village

Relying on an efficient data transmission network, satellites in space can not only "escort" agricultural production, but also allow express delivery into the village to open up the "last mile".

Hongya County, Meishan City is located on the southwest edge of the Sichuan Basin, with a maximum altitude of 3,090 meters. The landform is mainly mountainous hills. Among the local highways, mountain roads account for as high as 30%. In Huangli Village, Yuping Town, nowadays, express parcels have entered the village with "flying".

At the end of 2024, Sichuan villages connected to 5G, solving the problem of long-distance communication of drones, making drone delivery replace manual delivery truly implemented. At the beginning of 2025, the first drone express delivery route in Meishan City, Sichuan Province was launched in Hongya County. The drone carrying mail flew up from the Yuping Town Post Branch and landed accurately at the Huangli Village Collective Economy Comprehensive Service Station in about 10 minutes. Build an integrated agricultural and rural service system of "air-sky-earth"

In recent years, Meishan, Sichuan has promoted the construction of information infrastructure in remote areas, implemented 4G and 5G projects in 160 townships and administrative villages, and the rural Internet penetration rate has increased from 30% to 90%. On the increasingly solid rural digital base, an agricultural and rural service system integrating "space-sky-earth" represented by satellites, drones and ground sensing systems is being formed.

Qingshen County, Meishan City has just built the first citrus smart meteorological digital orchard in the southwest region. In a 3,000-acre smart orchard, 97 sets of sensing equipment accurately monitor the growth of fruit trees.

With the support of the smart system, Qingshen County Modern Agricultural Demonstration Park has become the "National Late-ripening Citrus Export Demonstration Zone", with export revenue of more than 40 million yuan in 2024. Digital infrastructure construction is constantly empowering rural revitalization. The latest data shows that Sichuan Province has achieved 100% fiber optic fiber access and 100% 5G access in 26,000 administrative villages across the province.

Tao Yun, director of the Information and Communication Development Department of Sichuan Communications Administration, introduced that a high-speed and low-latency data transmission network has been built to accelerate the integration and application of 5G technology with drone Internet of Things, remote sensing monitoring, geographic information and other technologies. Information and communication technology plays an increasingly important role in stabilizing production and increasing efficiency of the "Tianfu Granary". It can collect soil moisture, meteorology and other data in real time, and coordinate AI models to achieve accurate irrigation of rice fields 95%, and core indicators such as rice yield, agricultural machinery sowing efficiency, and rice blast warning accuracy have been effectively improved.

The continuously improved rural digital infrastructure construction is further promoting urban-rural integration and narrowing the "digital divide" between urban and rural areas. In Sichuan, rural smart security services have nearly 10 million users. In 2024, Sichuan's rural online retail sales were 289.39 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%.

Next, Sichuan will also focus on the deep coverage of 5G networks in rural areas, promote the integrated development of modern agricultural and rural applications, improve the level of universal services for information and communication technology, and continuously strengthen the digital rural base.