On the afternoon of March 21, 2025, the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China successfully held the first lecture of the Frontier and Interdisciplinary Academic Lecture Series on Agricultural and Forestry Economics and Management. The lecture featured a keynote speech by Researcher Wu Bingfang from the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, titled CropWatch: A Global Remote Sensing Cloud Platform for Crop Monitoring. The session was chaired by Associate Dean Mao Xuefeng and attended by numerous faculty members and students, including Professors Tan Shuhao, Chen Minpeng, Gao Yuan, Associate Professors Chen Chuanbo, Wang Yumeng, Wang Weiye, and Assistant Professor Lu Qinan.

Wu Bingfang began by explaining the strategic significance of crop condition monitoring for the development of modern agriculture and provided a detailed overview of the development history of the CropWatch remote sensing cloud platform. He systematically elaborated on its monitoring indicators, technical architecture, and overall framework, with a particular focus on the scientific methods for field sample collection and crop yield data processing. In his presentation, Dr. Wu highlighted the innovative technologies in remote sensing monitoring systems and automated information analysis for crops. Using comprehensive data and case studies, he vividly demonstrated the objectivity and precision of the CropWatch platform in agricultural monitoring. He also thoroughly explained its critical strategic value in global food security early warning systems, emphasizing its important role in supporting national agricultural policy-making and global agricultural governance through technological innovation.

CropWatch is a multi-dimensional agricultural remote sensing information platform that integrates key elements such as weather, disasters, cultivation, and vegetation to comprehensively monitor and analyze agricultural production conditions. The platform attracted widespread attention and strong interest from faculty and students at the college. During the Q&A session, Wu Bingfang addressed questions regarding the usage protocols of the platform, the accuracy of its remote sensing capabilities, and the security of the remote sensing data utilized.