'Mini monorail' facilitates farming in SW China's Yunnan

"Choo choo! Clank, clank..." In the vast fields of Gengma Dai and Wa Autonomous County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, an adorable "mini monorail" is slowly moving forward, fully loaded with plump, deep-purple eggplants.

Why is there a monorail in the middle of a vegetable field?

For workers at a vegetable planting base in a village in the county's Mengding town, the monorail has made it easier to transport the freshly picked eggplants to the vegetable packaging workshop.

The monorail, designed by Lincang Tianxin Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. for the vegetable base, features a diesel engine, flatbed carts, and tracks, with a load capacity of up to 200 kilograms. It provides stable climbing, agile turning, smooth forward and reverse movement, and instant braking. This makes it a highly efficient solution for transporting vegetables, fertilizers, and other agricultural supplies across rugged terrain.

Previously, transporting fertilizers, farm tools, and vegetables relied entirely on manual labor, which was time-consuming, exhausting, and costly. Now, the base has built a rail system spanning approximately 11,000 meters.

The vegetable base, covering 600 mu (40 hectares), was established by Lincang Tianxin Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. through land transfers. In 2024, the base generated an output value of over 4 million yuan (about $551,864).

By promoting machinery and technologies suited to local conditions, the county provides farmers with support they need to boost their incomes.