At present, the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic has gradually stabilized, and all walks of life are busy resuming production. For Zhejiang tea industry, the shortage of tea picking workers is very prominent. Facing this urgent problem, experts from Hangzhou University of Electronic Technology Scholars use their own methods to help the Zhejiang tea industry, predict the spring tea mining period of the main varieties of Zhejiang tea trees through big data analysis, and provide data support for the overall planning of tea picking laborers.
The digital agriculture research team of the School of Artificial Intelligence of Hangzhou Electronic and Science Technology University, in conjunction with the Zhejiang Agricultural Technology Extension Center, released the "Zhejiang Spring Tea Picking Period Forecast". This is the first time that Zhejiang Province has released a forecast of big data for tea picking.
The best picking periods for major tea varieties in Zhejiang. Longjing, Wuniuzao, Baiye No.1, and Jiukeng are included in the forecast. According to predictions, the best picking time of Longjing in Hangzhou West Lake is from March 15 to March 17, and some tea varieties are picked later, such as the Jiukeng in Qingyuan, southern Zhejiang, the best mining time is from March 29 to April 1.
So, is this year's tea industry picking period earlier or later than in previous years? Wu Kaihua, the head of the digital agriculture research team, said that from January to March 2020, the average temperature in the province is abnormally higher than normal, and the amount of precipitation and the number of days are the same as normal. Big data predictions indicate that, due to this effect, some tea varieties have advanced to some extent in some regions. "Our forecast data shows that the earliest picked Wuniu tea’s picking period is distributed in mid-February, which is about a week ahead of last year. The actual picking situation shows that our big data prediction is basically accurate."
The prediction data of Wu Kaihua's team is mainly based on the temperature data over the years, the true concept of tea picking time, and the questionnaire survey of first-line tea farmers. "Through the analysis of the model we established, we finally arrived at the best spring tea picking time this year." Wu Kaihua said that big data prediction is a powerful complement to the experience of experts. The model established by it has been verified by historical data, and the prediction accuracy is within 3 days. The prediction model has been highly recognized by experts in the tea field of the Provincial Agricultural Technology Extension Center.