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Quadriplegic and bedridden in a prefabricated home, 36-year-old Li Xia can only move one finger and one toe — yet he runs a high-tech farm in southwestern China using sensors, cameras and a computer.<\/p>\n
Li, who suffers from a genetic degenerative condition that progressively weakens muscles, relies on a ventilator permanently connected to his windpipe to breathe, but grows celery with the help of his 62-year-old mother.<\/p>\n
From his bed, he operates four greenhouses that lie 10 metres (33 feet) away via a programme he created and a computer screen hanging above him on an adjustable arm.<\/p>\n
“Through this microcomputer and the programme I developed, and a mobile app, I can monitor various data points from the farm, such as temperature, humidity, nutrient solution concentration, and pH levels,” Li told AFP.<\/p>\n
“With the cameras, I can see if the water pump is working or if the fans are running.”<\/p>\n
With the one finger he is able to move, he controls the on-screen cursor using a trackball.<\/p>\n
“To click, I use a flex sensor attached to my toe,” said Li from his home in Shiping village, near the southwestern city of Chongqing.<\/p>\n
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which he suffers from, is an incurable genetic disease that affects almost exclusively males, at a rate of one in 5,000 births.<\/p>\n
Over the years, it causes muscles to weaken, increasing the risk of falls, before paralysis sets in, affecting cardiac activity and breathing.<\/p>\n
Until the early 2000s, boys with the condition rarely lived beyond their teens. But with comprehensive care, survival into the 30s and even 40s is possible.<\/p>\n
Li, who was once able to get around in a wheelchair, experienced a sudden medical crisis in 2020 when he was 30 years old. He fell into a coma, became incontinent and quadriplegic.<\/p>\n
“I was devastated,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But after a few months, I pulled myself together and looked for things that made sense.”<\/p>\n
He discovered hydroponics, an innovative cultivation technique where vegetables are grown not in soil, but in a solution of water enriched with essential nutrients.<\/p>\n
Partially automated, it requires little manual labour, allows for crops to be precisely controlled and ensures good yields.<\/p>\n
“I grew up in the countryside, so I’ve always been in contact with seeds, soil and vegetables,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I also love digital technologies and programming. I realised I could combine the two.”<\/p>\n
Li taught himself computer programming and learned how to design a circuit board.<\/p>\n
His case is in many ways similar to others with severe neuromotor disorders, such as British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who was confined to a wheelchair and could only communicate through a voice synthesiser.<\/p>\n
Or Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was paralysed after a stroke and authored his 1997 book “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” by blinking his left eye, the only movement he could still control.<\/p>\n
For the farm tasks involving manual labour, Li is reliant on his mother Wu Dimei.<\/p>\n
“She is my arms and legs, and I am her brain,” he said.<\/p>\n
Li explains what needs to be done and supervises her work in the greenhouses via a video link to his smartphone.<\/p>\n
Wu operates tools, measures out fertiliser, installs equipment and connects cables.<\/p>\n
In addition to farm work, she provides for her son day and night, including cooking and cleaning the ventilation tube in his windpipe.<\/p>\n
“I don’t have time to rest,” Wu told AFP.<\/p>\n
Even with the help of her daughter, who regularly helps bathe her brother, Wu only sleeps three to five hours a night.<\/p>\n
“But it’s worth it,” said Wu, who is divorced. “It may not seem like it, but our family is quite happy.”<\/p>\n
They mainly rely on the income of Li’s sister, who works, and their mother’s pension.<\/p>\n
Li said he saw the high-tech farm as a “niche” with “great prospects”, and hoped to provide his family with a livelihood.<\/p>\n
“If I succeed, it would allow me to fulfil a dream, but also to earn money and improve our living conditions,” he said.<\/p>\n
They moved to a prefabricated portable home in 2022, and his celery is now sold to a local supermarket chain.<\/p>\n
“We’re not making a profit yet,” said Li, who embarked on his venture in 2022 .<\/em><\/p>\n “But my dream is to expand this farm, turn it into a successful business, produce more and earn more.<\/p>\n “My motivation is to see our vegetables grow, be harvested, sold and end up on people’s plates.”<\/p>\n AFP<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Quadriplegic and bedridden in a prefabricated home, 36-year-old Li Xia can only move one finger and one toe — yet he runs a high-tech farm in southwestern China using sensors, cameras and a computer. Li, who suffers from a genetic degenerative condition that progressively weakens muscles, relies on a ventilator permanently connected to his windpipe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":267976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n