Tech used to help hold back desert

HOHHOT — The challenging task of afforestation at the edge of the Mu Us Desert in northern China has taken on a futuristic feel this spring, with drones soaring through the air, transporting seedlings across vast sand dunes, while intelligent planting machines carve troughs planting saplings with precision.

"It only takes five seconds for these robots to plant a seedling in the desert," said Gao Fei, as he remotely operated two planting machines.

Gao, who works at Jintaiming Technology Group based in northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, explained that these are the company's second-generation intelligent tree-planting machines. They can completely automate the tree-planting process, from loosening the soil with an auger and inserting the sapling to watering its roots, covering it with soil and compacting it.