On 11 September 2026, the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the Digital Village High-Quality Development Action Plan (2026–2030). It sets China’s framework for using digital technologies to accelerate agricultural and rural modernization during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
By 2030, China aims to improve rural digital infrastructure, digitalize agricultural and rural industries, expand information-based rural public services, strengthen smart rural governance, and establish more sustainable mechanisms for digital village development. The plan moves beyond basic rural internet connectivity toward artificial intelligence (AI), big data, robotics, smart agricultural machinery, intelligent breeding, satellite technologies, digital platforms, and large language and foundation models. It contains eight quantitative indicators and 24 policy measures in five areas: 1) digital infrastructure and data foundations; 2) digitalization of rural industries; 3) digital rural public services; 4) intelligent rural governance; 5) and institutional, talent, and ecosystem development.
Major digital village development indicators under the 15th Five-Year Plan
Indicator | 2025 baseline | 2030 target |
Internet penetration rate in rural areas (%) | 69.5% | 75% |
Contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress (%) | 64% | 67% |
National rural online retail sales (RMB trillion) | 3.0 | 3.5 |
Share of administrative villages with village-level integrated postal and logistics service stations (%) | 80% | 90% |
Coverage rate of administrative villages by smart integrated management services (%) | 69.3% | 75% |
Share of township health centers covered by medical imaging centers of integrated county-level medical communities (%) | 90% | 95% |
Number of online cultural activities organized by county- and city-level cultural centers | 151,600 | 170,000 |
Share of rural adults possessing basic or higher-level digital literacy and skills (%) | 50.57%* | 55% |
*The value marked with an asterisk is based on 2024 statistics rather than 2025. Source: Table 1 of the Action Plan.
AI and smart agriculture
For agriculture, the plan substantially strengthens China’s commitment to AI-enabled farming. It calls for integrating good farmland, improved varieties, advanced machinery, and agronomic practices with digital technologies, particularly through solutions designed to raise yields of major crops at scale. China will establish a digital-scenario certification system for smart farms, livestock farms, and fisheries, develop smart farms adapted to local conditions, promote intelligent breeding technologies, and build technologically advanced crop seed-production areas and core livestock and aquaculture breeding farms.
One especially significant provision is the instruction to develop an agricultural AI standards system and expand integrated AI and agriculture application scenarios, which indicates a move beyond individual pilot projects toward standardization and broader commercial deployment. Agricultural sensors, specialized chips, core algorithms, agricultural robots, and intelligent design tools for breeding are identified as key technologies. The plan also calls for research and development (R&D) of highly precise intelligent machinery, better testing and certification systems, and expanded trials of unmanned machinery operations.
The plan therefore places AI within a broader technology stack that runs from agricultural data through sensors and chips, algorithms, robotics and intelligent machinery, and autonomous operations to smart farms and intelligent breeding.
Agricultural data as the foundation for AI
The plan calls for improving the National Agricultural and Rural Big Data System and accelerating the development of high-quality agricultural and rural datasets. It proposes mechanisms for using agricultural public data and the establishment of a trusted data space for agriculture and rural areas. Digital archives of cultivated land are to be created, and agricultural enterprises are encouraged to strengthen data governance and implement China’s Data Management Capability Maturity Assessment Model (DCMM) standards. High-quality datasets and interoperable data infrastructure are prerequisites for training agricultural AI models, precision-farming algorithms, intelligent breeding systems, and farm-management platforms.
Large models and AI agents
The document explicitly mentions AI large models (人工智能大模型), which sets it apart from earlier digital-agriculture plans. In rural government services, local authorities are instructed to deploy such models cautiously for high-frequency tasks, including service guidance, preliminary review of application materials, policy interpretation, and information delivery. The plan also calls for accelerated deployment of the “Jiu’an” large model (久安大模型) in rural emergency management, together with integrated digital emergency-command maps, to improve disaster monitoring, warning, information dissemination, and response.
AI agents (智能体) also appear explicitly. Rural schools are encouraged to use education AI agents and intelligent education terminals, while areas with suitable conditions may develop intelligent agents for integrated rural passenger, freight, and postal services. The plan therefore recognizes three forms of AI deployment: domain-specific agricultural AI, large and foundation models, and task-oriented intelligent agents.
Other digital technologies
The technological scope is broader than AI. The plan promotes 5G, gigabit fiber, high-throughput satellites, low-Earth-orbit satellite internet, satellite and aerial remote sensing, BeiDou navigation, blockchain, drones, and other low-altitude-economy applications. BeiDou is linked to precision agricultural operations and disaster monitoring, blockchain to product traceability and rural collective asset management, and low-altitude technologies to agricultural production and rural logistics. Cold-chain infrastructure, irrigation systems, rural electricity grids, charging infrastructure, county logistics centers, and township delivery networks are also to undergo digital upgrades.
Rural e-commerce and digital economy
China intends to develop rural e-commerce further through the High-Quality Rural E-Commerce Development Project, the Digital Commerce for Agriculture (数商兴农) initiative, and the Internet+ Agricultural Products from Villages to Cities program. County logistics centers and township courier outlets will be digitally upgraded, and low-altitude logistics may be introduced where conditions permit. New business models include shared farms, shared agricultural machinery, and shared marketplaces, together with rural tourism platforms, data-labeling activities, and other digitally enabled employment. National rural online retail sales are targeted to rise from RMB 3.0 trillion in 2025 to RMB 3.5 trillion by 2030, and the share of villages with integrated postal and logistics service stations from 80% to 90%.
Digital skills and human capital
Digital human capital is another measurable priority: the share of rural adults with at least basic digital literacy and skills is targeted to reach 55% by 2030, up from 50.57% in 2024. The government will expand digital-village-related academic disciplines, encourage interdisciplinary education, attract scientific and technological professionals to rural areas, cultivate rural digital specialists, and encourage groups such as “digital nomads” to take part in rural entrepreneurship. Training will target farmers, local officials, and agricultural production and business entities.
Implications for agriculture and agri-tech businesses
China’s digital-agriculture policy for 2026–2030 is shifting from “digitalization” toward “intelligentization.” Earlier priorities such as broadband, e-commerce, and agricultural information platforms remain important, but the technology agenda now explicitly extends to AI algorithms, specialized chips, agricultural robots, intelligent breeding, autonomous machinery, agricultural datasets, and AI standards.
For agricultural technology companies, this creates potential demand in smart machinery and autonomous operations; sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT); agricultural robotics; AI farm-management systems; precision agriculture; breeding software; remote sensing and BeiDou-enabled equipment; agricultural data platforms; traceability technologies; digital livestock and aquaculture systems; and AI-enabled agricultural services.
One provision of particular importance for international companies is the planned agricultural AI standards system. Standards, testing, and certification could become increasingly important for foreign machinery, robotics, sensor, and digital-agriculture companies seeking to commercialize products in China during the plan period.
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