Smart Agriculture Demo Farm for Medicinal Plants

Hualien’s Smart Agriculture Demonstration Project for Eastern and Western Medicinal Herbs aims to integrate modern smart technologies with sustainable agricultural practices, marking the first step toward establishing Hualien as a world-class industrial hub for medicinal herb cultivation. At its core, the project also seeks to enhance agricultural resilience in the face of climate change and global supply chain uncertainties, by promoting locally adapted, high-value crops and intelligent farming systems.

This demonstration farm focuses on identifying suitable medicinal crops for Hualien by leveraging the region’s pristine natural environment and strong foundations in agricultural biotechnology. It conducts cultivation and research on plants used in both traditional Chinese and Western herbal medicine, adopting eco-friendly growing methods to meet the high purity standards required for medicinal crops. The farm will also serve as a pilot site for future large-scale production and contract farming.

In addition, the farm is positioned as a testbed for the digital transformation of agriculture in Hualien. In collaboration with startups incubated by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the project will introduce AI- and IoT-powered monitoring systems to enable real-time tracking of soil and weather conditions, optimizing both growing environments and resource efficiency. Furthermore, the site will serve as a testing ground for smart farming robotics. Starting from this base, the initiative aims to establish a model of shared benefits and responsibilities among local farmers, and to become a pioneering example of how agricultural technology, sustainability, and resilience can be effectively combined.