On the morning of January 10, a seminar on "Smart Agricultural Technology Adoption and Extension" was held in A701 conference room. The seminar invited Dr. Fan Li, from the research group of development economics, Wageningen UR, Netherlands, Hengshuo Fan, the General Manager of Strategic Development Department and Yixiao Wang, CIO from Fengnong Holding Co., Ltd, Dr. Lin Chen Coo and Weiwei Qu, CBO from Beijing ICAN Technology Co., Ltd, Dr. Zaiwen Feng from School of Computer Science, Wuhan University, Prof. Ying Sha from College of Informatics and Prof. Shi Min from College of Economics & Management, Huazhong Agricultural University. Prof. Hang Xiong and the postgraduates from the research team of "agricultural big data and smart agriculture" also attended the seminar.

The seminar was divided into two parts: conference report and free discussion. In the report session, Prof. Hang Xiong and Dr. Fan Li respectively explained the research and the design of randomized control trial (RCT) on the adoption and benefit analysis of smart agricultural technology. Representatives of the two enterprises respectively introduced the extension and production practice of smart agricultural technology. In the free discussion session, the participants held a heated discussion on the role of farmers' social network in the diffusion of smart agricultural technology, the adoptive subjects and technical characteristics of smart agricultural technology in the smartphone applications, and the conditions of user behavior data acquisition and randomized control trial. The both sides had found the combination point in the research on the adoption of smart agricultural technology and its efficiency, and the appliance of the research results to the smart agricultural technology extension, which laid a foundation for the cooperation of industry, education and research.

Written by Lidong Zhao