When we visited the modern agricultural base in Xiaotangshan, Beijing, the intelligent greenhouse, precision irrigation system, and digital management platform in the agricultural park made us deeply feel the changes brought by technology to agriculture. However, Ms. Zhao from the agricultural park candidly told us during her visit: "What you see here is already the ceiling of modern agriculture in China. However, in the vast small cities and mountainous areas, many farmers still rely on the most traditional experience and rely on the weather to grow crops. They are difficult to access and often unable to afford these new technologies..." Her words triggered our thinking.

what is the agricultural panorama that we have not touched upon?

Through data analysis, we have discovered a reality that is completely different from Xiaotangshan Agricultural Plantation:

According to the data from the third agricultural census, the number of small farmers in China accounts for over 98% of the agricultural operating entities, and the employees of small farmers account for 90% of all agricultural employees. The cultivated land area operated by small farmers accounts for 70% of the total cultivated land area. Despite the development of digital technology, the 2023 survey data on agricultural development in mountainous areas by the Rural Economic Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs shows that about 70% of farmers in mountainous areas still rely mainly on traditional experience for planting, and less than 15% of farmers have been exposed to new agricultural technologies. In some remote mountainous areas, the level of agricultural mechanization is less than 30%. They are the foundation of national food security, but the survival status of this large group is extremely fragile. In recent years, natural disasters have occurred frequently, and for farmers who rely on traditional farming methods, every extreme weather event means that their harvest may be severely affected, posing a direct threat to their livelihoods.

This makes us realize that the development of agricultural technology requires not only technological breakthroughs, but also attention to the inclusiveness and fairness of technology popularization.

We begin to reflect: if a technology can only serve modern farms with abundant resources and cannot benefit the small farmers who need help the most, then its social value will be limited. Therefore, we are determined to integrate inclusivity into the project, explore how to make our research results feasible for universal promotion, and one day illuminate those fields that have not yet been benefited by the light of technology.

If a technology can only serve modern farms with abundant resources and cannot benefit the small farmers who need help the most, then its social value will be limited. Therefore, we are determined to integrate inclusiveness into our projects, exploring how to make our research results feasible for broad dissemination, so that one day they can illuminate the fields that have yet to be touched by the light of technology.

We learned from the sharing of Professor Zhu Junhong, an agricultural technology promotion technician, that there may be three major obstacles to technology promotion:

Based on this, crossing the Divide: Inclusive Design from Three Dimensions

In the technical design process, we regard 'low cost' as a core goal throughout, comprehensively exploring and implementing economic feasibility from equipment selection, optimization of operational processes, to benefit transformation pathways. This ensures that the technology can also be applied to farmers in mountainous areas with relatively limited resources, enabling them to afford it easily and genuinely benefit from it.

Our solution can use widely available and low-cost LED light sources as illumination equipment, which has advantages such as low energy consumption, long lifespan, and adjustable spectrum. It can precisely control light quality and intensity according to crop requirements, avoiding energy waste. The technical operating process is simple; farmers only need to set the lighting time and intensity through a simple controller, without the need for professional training or frequent intervention. Additionally, the lighting treatment does not require changing existing planting habits and can be directly integrated into greenhouse planting environments, avoiding extra transformation costs.

This technology not only reduces the use of pesticides and fertilizers by enhancing crop resistance, directly lowering production costs, but also extends the post-harvest shelf life of fruits and vegetables, reducing losses, improving commercialization rates, and increasing farmers' incomes. Preliminary estimates show that farmers using this technology can recover their equipment investment within 1-2 production cycles, with significant long-term benefits.

It's not that they don't want to learn, it's that they can't understand the terminology and remember the steps. "This is a common confusion among farmers in mountainous areas. The "2023 Rural Labor Quality Survey Report" jointly released by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs shows that 75% of farmers in mountainous areas have a junior high school education or below, which makes it difficult for them to acquire new technological knowledge. Inclusive knowledge transmission requires technical manuals to be in a language that they can understand and learn. Based on this, we refuse to simply copy the laboratory's instructions and instead have developed the "Future Technical Operation Guide for 'Wearing Protective Clothing for Crops' (Conceptual Version)". We have transformed the complex principles of light regulation into vivid illustrations, using the metaphor of "giving crops sunlight" to indicate the timing of supplementary lighting, using the metaphor of "wearing protective clothing" to indicate wax enhancement, and using simple symbols and images to illustrate the application methods and principles. As a design and communication tool, show it to the target farmers and collect information on whether they can understand it, whether they find the operation cumbersome, and whether they can accept the secondary cost. Then, in turn, guide the focus of our laboratory stage work.

To truly reach farmers in need, we proactively connected with grassroots stations like the Shanghai Yongle Village Committee and mailed the carefully designed and printed operation guides to the village committee, asking village officials to assist in distribution and gather first-hand real feedback from farmers. In the next step, we will iterate and optimize the guide based on the collected feedback.

Our technological design follows the principle of "assistance rather than substitution", combining modern science with traditional experience to truly integrate technological innovation into local agricultural culture. In traditional agriculture, farmers have accumulated experience through long-term practice in working based on weather forecasts and observing plant growth, such as determining management priorities based on crop growth stages and perceiving crop health through leaf status. These understandings of the relationship between crops and the environment are important components of agricultural culture.

Our technical design is based on this: when evaluating the wax enhancement effect, we not only focus on the chromatographic detection of wax components, but also specifically record the phenotypic characteristics that farmers can intuitively perceive, such as leaf water holding capacity, corresponding to the traditional drought resistance cognition of "leaves are not easily wilted". In the promotion of technology, we vividly describe the state of abundant wax as "leaves like a thin layer of wax, no mud in rain, slow wilting in the sun", echoing farmers' traditional understanding of "strong seedlings" and making the judgment of technical effects in line with their inherent experience.

Moreover, our technology promotes the synthesis of wax by crops themselves through light, rather than relying on external chemicals, which is consistent with the traditional idea of cultivating crop resistance, making farmers feel that this technology is helping crops grow better on their own. This not only leverages the regulatory role of modern biology in crop stress resistance mechanisms, but also preserves farmers' experiential confidence, making it easier to understand and accept the value of their labor through scientific means.

The core of light regulated plant wax synthesis technology is to enhance plant stress resistance, such as drought resistance and disease resistance. In the laboratory stage, we reflected on the inclusiveness of natural ecology and integrated relevant considerations into the experimental design itself, rather than direct field applications. After all, the technology itself is still in the validation stage and needs to be prepared for its future exit from the laboratory.

In terms of ecological inclusiveness, when selecting light parameters, we not only focus on maximizing wax synthesis, but also additionally record the metabolic changes of plants under different light conditions. Although these are only preliminary observations at the laboratory scale, they help to assess in advance whether the technology may unintentionally interfere with pollinating insect behavior or affect the function of beneficial microbial communities in the soil in actual agricultural environments.

In addition, our system compares the differences in wax synthesis in plants under natural light conditions with the changes after artificial light intervention, aiming to constrain the intensity of artificial regulation within the natural adaptation range of plants and avoid potential negative impacts on the agricultural ecological chain caused by excessive intervention leading to imbalances in plant resistance mechanisms.

At the same time, we will make public the basic data accumulated in the laboratory. Inviting environmental organizations and other interested individuals to analyze together: Based on existing data, what specific changes may this approach of enhancing plant resistance bring at the ecological chain level? All of these require a professional perspective to jointly argue. Put the ecological benefits of technology under stricter scrutiny. We are also trying to explain the technical logic to consumers in a more accessible way. For example, by comparing images and text, we can show the difference between "wax protective clothing grown by plants themselves" and "pesticide protection". We will also share small observations in the laboratory to help everyone understand that artificial regulation is a scientific method to help plants unleash their potential. Gradually building a consensus: good agricultural technology should not only help farmers solve problems, but also benefit both the ecology and the public.

From the laboratory to the fields:

In the experimental phase, we use Virginia tobacco as our research crop, clarifying the optimal light regulation conditions for its wax synthesis. Virginia tobacco has a short growth cycle, low resource requirements, and easy management, making it particularly suitable for large-scale production in intelligent greenhouses where light and temperature conditions can be controlled. The high wax content plants obtained can serve as a stable source of natural plant wax, replacing industrial chemical lubricants, petroleum-based waxes, and other materials. For example, they can be used in food mold release, high-end cosmetics, or drug carrier preparation, and can even add value in medical dressings and eco-friendly mosquito repellent products.

This not only broadens the empowering boundaries of agricultural technology but also reduces dependence on fossil raw materials and synthetic chemicals, balancing economic and ecological benefits while responding to broader social needs and environmental values.