With the intersectional development of photoelectric information technology and agriculture, agriculture has entered an era empowered by light. The application of optical technologies such as lasers, spectroscopy, and novel optical materials in greenhouses, open fields and other agricultural production enables producers to accurately acquire crop information and control the light environment for agricultural production, achieving the goal of improving quality and efficiency. The report of the 20th National Congress of the CCP explicitly calls for "accelerating the building of a strong agricultural nation". General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized closely following the forefront of global agricultural science and technology, greatly improving China's agricultural science and technology, and accelerating self-reliance and self-improvement in high-level agricultural science and technology. In 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs proposed that science and technology is the fundamental driving force for building an agricultural powerhouse. We must resolutely win the battle for core and critical agricultural technologies, accelerate building the world's most important agricultural talent center and innovation highland, improve the national agricultural science and technology innovation system, and open up new fields and new tracks such as agricultural biotechnology and digital technology to shape new momentum and advantages for high-quality agricultural development with high-level scientific and technological innovation.

To better promote the application of photoelectric information technology in modern agricultural production and strengthen the empowerment of high-quality agricultural development by photoelectric equipment, constructing a new model of agricultural production based on the concept of cycling agriculture of "plants, animals and fungi", our journal plans to launch a special issue on "Optical Agricultural Technologies and Applications". This special issue invites Professor Yu Helong, Executive Deputy Director of the Institute of Intelligent Agriculture and Dean of the School of Information Technology at Jilin Agricultural University, to serve as the Guest Editor. We are openly soliciting submissions from experts, scholars and researchers in relevant fields worldwide.

Guest Editor

Yu Helong, Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor, Postdoctoral Fellow at Tsinghua University. Member of the China Democratic League, Committee Member of Changchun CPPCC, and Committee Member of Jilin Provincial Committee of China Democratic League. Currently Dean of the School of Information Technology and Executive Deputy Director of the Institute of Intelligent Agriculture at Jilin Agricultural University. Expert with Outstanding Contributions in Jilin Province, Outstanding Innovative Talent in Jilin Province, and National Second Prize Winner of the National Higher Education Teaching Innovation Contest. He initiated and constructed two interdisciplinary subjects of big data technology and intelligent agriculture, and optical agricultural science and engineering, and currently leads the Ph.D. program in Agricultural Engineering at Jilin Agricultural University. Person in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' Agricultural and Rural Informatization Demonstration Base, the State Key Laboratory of Science and Technology, Director of Jilin Precision Agriculture and Big Data Engineering Research Center, and Director of Jilin Digital Transformation Promotion Center. Director of the Ministry of Education’s Virtual Teaching and Research Branch for Talent Cultivation Reform in New Agriculture, lead person of the National First-class Major Construction Site (Computer Science and Technology), and first lecturer of the National First-class Course (Computer Networks). He concurrently serves as Secretary General of the Digital Agriculture Branch of China Computer Federation (CCF), President of Jilin Intelligent Agriculture Society, Executive Committee Member of the Intelligent Agriculture Professional Committee of China Artificial Intelligence Society, and Council Member of the Intelligent Agriculture Professional Committee of Chinese Society of Agronomy. He has visited and conducted academic exchanges at Massey University in New Zealand and York University in Canada. His main research and teaching focuses on computational agriculture, optical agriculture and other related fields. He has undertaken more than 20 national and provincial key research projects, published over 130 SCI/EI papers, applied/authorized 12 patents for invention, registered over 20 software copyrights, and published 5 monographs. He has won 2 first prizes and 5 second prizes of Jilin Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award.

Scope of Papers (including but not limited to)

1.Agricultural lighting technologies and equipment

2.Crop monitoring technologies and equipment

3.Light environment control technologies and equipment for facility agriculture

4.Soil component detection technologies and equipment in fields

5.Detection and analysis technologies and equipment for agricultural products

6.Technologies and equipment of novel optical materials for agriculture

7.Optical breeding technologies and equipment

8.Optical technologies and equipment for pest and disease control

9.Optical navigation technologies and equipment

Paper Submission

Requirements: Submitted papers should be original research not published elsewhere, in either Chinese or English. The topic should fall within the scope outlined above, with clear opinions, substantial materials, correct data, reasonable argumentation and proper formatting. The paper should be concise, informative and well-structured, including English and Chinese titles, author information, abstract, keywords, funding, main text, and references. Figures and tables should be editable and submitted in Word.

Types of Submissions: Research articles, reviews, etc.

Deadline: June 15, 2024

Submission Website: http://znhnyzbxb.niam.com.cn

Contact Email: jiam@caas.cn

Managing Editors: Qiao Lu, +86 15366092883 (WeChat); Zhu Bing, +86 15366092857 (WeChat)

Note: Papers submitted to this special issue that pass expert review will be fast-tracked for publication in Issue 3, 2024.