The largest smart farm in Beijing is located in Zhangziyingzhen town, Daxing district, and covers an area of 100 mu (6.6 hectares). Dubbed the "Tomato Forest," it provides 5,000 kg of tomatoes every day for the city using smart production techniques and IoT sales channels.

The procedures for entering the greenhouses were complicated even prior to the current COVID-19 outbreak, with all personnel required to put on full protective gear. Every employee on the farm must also keep a distance of at least one meter from one another and use the proper precautions.

The view inside the greenhouses is remarkable. Hundreds of raised beds planted with five-meter-high tomato vines give an impression as if the farm was actually a vineyard. 

The core operations of the farm are controlled by an automatic system that require only a few staff members, explained Xu Lianjie, head of the smart farm. Funded by the Beijing Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, the farm uses state-of-the-art greenhouse and fruit planting technology from the Netherlands that make automatic soil cultivation, nutrition supply, smart temperature and humidity control possible.

Fresh tomatoes picked from the greenhouse are packaged immediately and sent to grocery stores across the capital through cold chain transportation. At present, customers can place orders via an online platform using smartphone or computer and even monitor the whole process of growing, picking, packaging and transporting. Since the novel coronavirus outbreak, IoT sales platforms have been widely recognized by citizens and have increased the sales of tomatoes.

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