Tea farmers pick this year’s first batch of West Lake Longjing tea in the Wengjiashan Mountains in Hangzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang Province. Photo: XinhuaThis year’s Longjing tea harvest features a new addition to its workforce: tea-picking robots
A cooler-than-average spring in east China has slightly delayed this year’s Longjing tea harvest. But tea connoisseurs can still look forward to revelling in the aroma of spring tea without much delay, thanks to an innovative addition to the traditional tea-picking workforce – robots.
In late 2022, China’s traditional tea-making was added to the Unesco intangible cultural heritage list.
Longjing tea – named after the village of Longjing near West Lake in Hangzhou in the eastern Zhejiang province – is renowned for its lustrous green colour, enticing fragrance, mellow taste and beautiful shape.
Traditionally, the picking of high-quality tea leaves in China has been very dependent on manual work. Skilled pickers can identify and pluck the most delicate leaves – containing rich nutritional components and aroma – without bruising and damaging the pieces.
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Another major reason for a heavy traditional reliance on human labour is that many tea farms are in hilly areas, where mechanised equipment has proven to be either impractical or unavailable.
However, the average age of tea pickers in Longjing’s premium production area is now 65. This growing labour shortage is increasingly challenging the viability of reliance on traditional manual picking.
Tea buds and leaves do not ripen at the same time, even on the same branch. In early spring, they are typically about 2 centimetres long, with petioles (the stalk that joins a leaf to a stem) just a few millimetres long.
“New growth looks very similar to older leaves, making it difficult to distinguish between immature and ready-to-pick tea leaves,” said Jia Jiangming, an associate professor at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University.
This year, robots have joined the ranks of tea pickers to tackle the challenge. Similar to skilled human pickers who rely on experience, these mechanical assistants use artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically identify tea buds and leaves through vast amounts of image data.
According to Chen Jianneng, head of the institute of agricultural machinery at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, the latest version of these machines can handle the workload of one and a half human workers. The university is also collaborating with the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to develop tea varieties better suited for mechanical harvesting.
“Our robotic arms mimic the gentle and precise techniques of human pickers – minimising damage to the tea leaves and the field,” said Zhou Yujie, technical director of Hangzhou Aiguorui Intelligent Technology Co Ltd.
Zhou noted that the company has reduced the cost of robotic arms from around 100,000 yuan (HK$106,195 or US$13,873) to under 10,000 yuan (HK$10,619 or US$1,369) and cut the weight of the robotic arms from 85 kilograms to 22 kilograms. Zhou also expressed hope that these robots will eventually adapt to different types of terrain and speed up operations.
Innovative technologies are transforming tea cultivation and harvesting with impressive speed. For example, in a Longjing tea field in Hangzhou, a comprehensive intelligent monitoring station can predict pest trends and monitor meteorological and soil data in real-time. This ensures optimal tea plant growth while addressing environmental concerns through rational irrigation and scientific fertilisation.
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Zhejiang Top Cloud-Agri Technology Co Ltd is using drones to create terrain databases for Longjing tea fields and visually track pesticide spraying, enabling eco-friendly pest control.
“Drones fly twice daily, allowing farmers to monitor tea health and growth via an app. This enables timely maintenance and harvesting,” said Pan Ning, a senior expert at the company.
Shao Guozhi, a tea farmer in Longwucha Township, one of the core production areas for West Lake Longjing tea, revealed that using drones to transport rapeseed cake fertiliser had made the job much easier.
He noted that drones can move over 3,000 kilograms in a single day, saving time and effort while boosting efficiency. “Once we finish transporting fertiliser for our own village, we even help out in neighbouring tea villages,” Shao added.
Fuelled by surging demand, the application of AI in agriculture has expanded rapidly in China, highlighting the government’s continued efforts to modernise its agricultural sector to accelerate rural revitalisation. This effort will profoundly affect the lives of more than 460 million people in rural areas.