On 9 September 2026, China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) jointly released the National Agricultural Mechanization Development Plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan Period (2026–2030). It treats mechanization and intelligent technology as core foundations of agricultural modernization and food security, with a shift toward large high-end machinery, artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous operation, BeiDou navigation, robots, and electric machinery.
Major goals and quantitative indicators for 2030
The most important measurable targets are:
Indicator | 2030 target |
Comprehensive mechanization rate for crop plowing, planting, and harvesting | >80% |
Mechanization rate for crops in hilly and mountainous regions | >75% |
Wheat, rice, and corn | “Higher-level mechanization” |
Agricultural UAV operations | >233 million hectare-times by 2030 |
Test sites for maturation and application of innovative machinery | >1,500 sites |
Average wheat mechanical harvesting loss | ≤1.0% |
Average rice mechanical harvesting loss | ≤1.8% |
Average corn mechanical harvesting loss | ≤2.1% |
Northeast China conservation tillage and mechanized yield-enhancement area | 3.3 million ha |
The plan also requires more than 1,500 field-testing sites and treats harvest-loss reduction as a key indicator.
Specific machinery and horsepower priorities
Large high-end machinery: China intends to close remaining gaps in large, high-end intelligent machinery.
The plan specifically names:
- 400-horsepower-class continuously variable transmission (CVT) and powershift tractors
- Full powershift tractors
- Large combined tillage machinery
- High-speed precision planters for dense planting
- Grain combines with a feeding capacity above 20 kg per second
- High-performance machinery with online operation-quality monitoring
- Machinery with adaptive working-posture adjustment
- Autonomous driving and autonomous-operation systems
These are the plan’s landmark products for priority research and development (R&D).
The 400-horsepower class is the only numerical tractor benchmark; elsewhere the plan refers to high-horsepower tractors in general. For suppliers such as CLAAS, John Deere, CNH, and AGCO, this signals that China still wants to close the gap to international levels in large machinery.
Electrification and new-energy agricultural machinery
Electrification is far more prominent than in earlier policies, with several pathways pursued at once:
pure electric, hybrid electric, and clean-fuel power systems.
Priority products include:
- high-horsepower hybrid tractors
- pure-electric tractors for protected agriculture
- hybrid combine harvesters
- electric lightweight equipment for small fields and mountain areas
- new-energy equipment for cultivation, livestock, and processing.
The government will set standards for complete-machine performance, key components, energy management, safety monitoring, and data interfaces. Rural charging and battery-swapping infrastructure for electric tractors and agricultural unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is to develop alongside the machinery itself.
AI becomes a core agricultural machinery technology
The plan calls for “AI empowering agricultural mechanization” (人工智能赋能农业机械化). Machinery should acquire capabilities including:
- autonomous path planning;
- autonomous posture adjustment;
- autonomous decision-making and control;
- intelligent sensing;
- precision operations;
- remote operation and maintenance;
- human-machine interaction;
- multi-machine and group control.
This marks a shift toward machinery that can perceive, analyze, decide, and execute autonomously.
Agricultural robots
Agricultural robotics is a separate strategic development area. Priority robot types include:
Application | Robot or equipment |
Crop protection | Laser-weeding robots |
Horticulture | Selective fruit and vegetable harvesting robots |
Mountain agriculture | Multi-legged transport robots |
Livestock | Vaccination robots |
Protected agriculture | Facility inspection robots |
Livestock feeding | Precision feeding robots |
Underlying technologies include path planning, real-time perception, positioning and navigation, and coordinated group control, with difficult working environments seen as suitable for robotic substitution.
Autonomous agricultural machinery and vehicles
The plan defines no “autonomous farm vehicle” category, but large machinery should incorporate automatic driving, and AI-enabled machinery should handle its own path planning, position adjustment, and operational decisions.
The seed industry is another application. The plan encourages:
- autonomous-driving seed-production machinery
- automated pollination equipment
- intelligent sorting and packaging production lines
automated livestock feeding and grouping systems.
BeiDou navigation becomes mainstream agricultural infrastructure
The BeiDou navigation system receives unusually strong support: the plan calls for large-scale application in agricultural machinery, supporting:
- assisted steering;
- automatic guidance;
- precision sowing;
- harvesting;
- operation monitoring;
- machinery positioning;
- dispatch and fleet management;
- seed-production machinery;
- autonomous machinery.
Subsidies will accelerate adoption: the purchase-and-application subsidy and the scrappage-and-renewal subsidy are to support machinery purchased, upgraded, or retrofitted with BeiDou-assisted driving, and BeiDou will be built into command-and-dispatch systems.
Agricultural drones and China’s “low-altitude economy”
Drones will expand well beyond crop spraying. The policy envisions:
- crop protection and fertilization;
- sowing and feed application;
- crop-condition monitoring;
- water-quality monitoring;
- grassland management;
- herd monitoring;
- transport of agricultural materials;
- machinery transport in mountainous regions.
China will also build heavy UAV takeoff and landing platforms and charging stations
Mechanization strategy differs strongly by region
China is not pursuing a single national machinery model.
Northeast China: large, high-end intelligent equipment, straw-management machinery, and high-performance no-till seeders.
Huang-Huai-Hai River region: high-performance wheat-corn rotation seeders, low-loss harvesters, corn grain harvesters, intelligent protected-agriculture machinery, and tracked machinery for adverse weather.
Northwest China: large intelligent equipment plus machinery for water-saving dryland agriculture, plastic-film cultivation, and precision application of water, fertilizer, and agrochemicals.
Middle and Lower Yangtze: intelligent rice seedling raising and transplanting, low-loss harvesters, grain and oil drying, and smart facility agriculture.
Southwest and South China: small, lightweight, and electrified machinery suited to slopes, small fields, and heavy soils.
Livestock and aquaculture machinery
Mechanization is expanding beyond field crops. Livestock priorities include:
- high-efficiency forage harvesting and processing;
- precision feeding;
- livestock slaughter equipment;
- intelligent environmental control;
- disease prevention;
- automated livestock-product collection and processing;
- manure treatment and utilization;
- intelligent fencing;
- livestock positioning and remote transport.
The plan promotes “AI + livestock mechanization.” Aquaculture priorities include automated seedling production, disease management, water-quality regulation, and precision feeding.
Agricultural machinery purchase subsidies
The plan repeatedly refers to two subsidy principles:
“优机优补”: better machines receive preferential subsidies, so policy favors advanced, suitable equipment. “有进有出”: dynamic entry and exit as priorities change. The program will prioritize:
- high-performance seeders;
- intelligent high-speed rice transplanters;
- large high-end intelligent agricultural machinery;
- machinery suitable for hilly and mountainous areas;
- new-energy and electric agricultural machinery;
- replacement of obsolete machinery.
A separate scrappage-and-renewal subsidy should accelerate retirement of old machinery, and BeiDou-enabled equipment can be supported, including retrofits. Operation subsidies (作业补贴) tie support to the work a machine performs rather than to its purchase alone.
The plan neither excludes foreign brands from the subsidy system nor guarantees equal treatment; it supports buying “advanced and suitable agricultural machinery and equipment.” Eligibility will depend on appraisal procedures, subsidy catalogs, standards, and provincial rules not specified here.
Implications for foreign and German companies
Two policy directions compete. China explicitly supports international cooperation with Belt and Road countries, Europe, and the United States on technology R&D, product standards, market access, and talent training, while also seeking to strengthen Chinese manufacturers, develop Chinese components and software, and build an independently controllable machinery ecosystem.
For the market, value is moving upward toward intelligent, precision, high-productivity machinery. AI and software are becoming part of the machine, so manufacturers will compete on sensors, algorithms, autonomous control, and fleet management as well as on engines and hydraulics. BeiDou compatibility could matter for market access and subsidies.
For German manufacturers such as CLAAS and AMAZONE, the most attractive openings match traditional strengths: high-horsepower tractors, high-capacity combines, precision seeding, livestock machinery, and sensors. Exporting complete machines alone may become less competitive; the emphasis on domestic manufacturing, standards, BeiDou, and service networks points to localization and partnerships.
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