The team has developed high-tech equipment to boost farm efficiency.

"Through digital management and mechanized operations, labor costs can be reduced by more than 50 percent and pesticide and fertilizer use can be cut by 30 to 40 percent. As a result, the comprehensive benefits can be increased by 32.5 percent," He Xiongkui, a university professor, says.

His team is testing out a new robot which will handle the tasks of removing branches, finding ripe peaches and picking them to save money and labor.