A First-Timer’s Rice Harvest in Jiading

The crops are ripe in Jiading, waiting to be harvested. But this isn't just any farm, it's called the "unmanned farm". For city kids like me, it's exciting to experiencing farm life up close and seeing how technologies are revolutionizing agriculture.

Over 50 families came to experience the farm. Everyone was enthusiastic about work.

Six-year-old Declan said, "My favorite part is I drive the drone up and down."

His father David said, "Today, definitely the drones, the UAVs. Very cool. I've seen maybe on video or TV, but never up close."

Now I'm going to get my hands dirty and try to harvest them by hand... It's a new way to understand where our food comes from. But after just a few minutes of harvesting, I could already feel the exhaustion setting in. It's not easy work. I'm glad that there are now drones and unmanned harvesters taking care of everything.

The children were still excited, though. I overheard one boy saying, "Quick, Mom! Otherwise, there won't be enough crops left for us to harvest!" 

10-year-old Elsa said, "I cut the crops then gathered it up. It was so much fun!"

Her mother Ms. Li said, "I've been following this event closely. They've hosted it for 12 seasons, and this year is the 13th. We managed to snatch up tickets by setting an alarm in advance. So I brought my children along to learn about the crops."

5-year-old Leo also went to cut the crops today. He said he has been to a place for horse riding in the UK where you need to care for the horses before you ride them. It's a farm too.

His father told ShanghaiEye reporter that he came from the countryside in the UK, so he felt very at home here. He added, "Obviously it's nice to bring the kids and the family out here to enjoy the country life and taste the local food. The best thing today, I think, was seeing how this farm is using drones to automate farming and agriculture. They require fewer workers to produce more food. It's great."

Danny from the Netherlands has lived in Shanghai for over a decade. He said, "I live in Jiading, basically almost around a corner here. It gives more the feeling of living in a town rather than in a big city. Yet we're still very close to the big city. So you get sort of to have all the advantages of living in a big city, while having a very nice and quiet life. It looks very much like the Netherlands, really, where I'm from. So it feels like home, you know, in a way."