Scientists support digital farming contest

Pinduoduo launches 2021 Smart Agriculture Competition

Pinduoduo took the lead in hosting the inaugural Smart Agriculture Competition in 2020 as part of its efforts to support and spearhead the modernization of agriculture.

"Through the Smart Agriculture Competition, we hope to interest more young scientific talent in agriculture so that they can apply their talents to helping farmers," said Andre Zhu, Senior Vice President at Pinduoduo. "Helping farmers to grow better not only helps people to eat better, but also has a positive impact on the environment."

This year, the competition has attracted some of the world's leading experts in agriculture, nutrition and data science to serve as judges and technical advisers, underscoring the value of a cross-disciplinary approach to tackling the challenge of growing more and better with less.

Pinduoduo is co-organizing the Smart Agriculture Competition with China Agricultural University and Zhejiang University, with technical guidance from the FAO and Wageningen University and Research.

The competition will run from August 2021 to March 2022. Participating teams will compete to remotely grow tomatoes, combining agronomic knowledge with precision technology such as greenhouse automation, sensors and algorithms.

The objective is to develop efficient techniques to grow tomatoes with high yield and nutritional quality at a low cost, using an environmentally sustainable approach.

The following are the members of the judging panel for the competition:

Ronald Hoek, CEO and co-founder of Blue Radix


Alfonso Alba, Country Division Head for Bayer Crop Science, Greater China


Thomas Hansen, Attaché for higher education, science and innovation, Denmark

He Dongjian, Professor of Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University

He Dongxian, Professor at China Agricultural University

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Photo: Screenshot from the video of Pinduoduo Inc on youtube.

Source: Pinduoduo