Promoting agricultural modernization is essential to achieving what's known as China's high-quality development. A new series, VIBRANT LAND, explores how digital technologies are changing modern agriculture. In the first episode, WU LEI takes a look at tea production in eastern China.

Harvesting of West Lake Longjing tea in Zhejiang Province begins in March. A premium quality green tea, it's mainly farmed in Longjing Village in the West Lake District of the provincial capital Hangzhou. Only around 500 tons of this tea is produced each year, but market demand for the product is huge. Qi Yingjie and his family have been growing Longjing tea for generations.

QI YINGJIE Chairman, Hangzhou Xihu Longjing Tea Company "For consumers, one of the biggest difficulties when buying West Lake Longjing tea is that they often don't know how to choose the authentic longjing tea and are afraid of buying fake brand tea."

Local authorities are providing farmers and producers with special packaging labels to certify the authenticity of the tea based on where it's grown.

QI YINGJIE Chairman, Hangzhou Xihu Longjing Tea Company "If you have one mu or 666 square meters of a tea plantation, you will receive the anti-counterfeit labels to cover around 25 kilograms of West Lake Longjing tea. When consumers scan the QR code on the label, they will know where the tea leaves are planted and produced."

Tea farmers traditionally had to rely solely on their experience, with no modern technology to help them deal with unpredictable changes in the weather.

WU LEI Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province "This high-tech power and meteorological equipment is installed on the top of the mountain, collecting weather data and monitoring the yield and quality of Longjing tea trees."

Powered by the sun and wind, these facilities operate 24 hours a day.

NI YONG Deputy Director of Marketing Department Zhejiang Evotrue Net Technology Co. "We collect data including air temperature and humidity, wind direction, rainfall and atmospheric pressure. The data are sent back to our system in real time. It will offer detailed reference for tea plantation management so as to improve the quality of the tea."

Ni Yong says his company has installed more than 20,000 sets of this equipment across China, offering digital solutions for farming fruits, rice and other foods. Now companies are working together to combine technologies such as 5G, AI and Block Chain to support agricultural production.

ZHANG ZHECHAO Deputy GM, Customer Department China Mobile Group Zhejiang Co., Hangzhou Branch "We use blockchain technology to ensure the production, sales and traceability of all Longjing tea. This is our blockchain ID card, this certificate on the blockchain, it can not be tampered with or be eliminated in this way, to ensure the authenticity of the data."

China is one of the world's largest tea markets, and it's hoped more digital technologies can be used to help the agriculture sector meet growing consumer demand. WL, CGTN, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.