The fact that 28-year-old Gu Yue'e had never farmed a day in her life does not affect her performance at an intelligent agricultural garden. Bustling around between rows of perforated PVC tubes, she immediately got the hang of her new role as a modern farmer.

She took out seedlings from a tray before carefully putting them inside the holes in the tube. She was still able to wear her favourite boots, without any worries about getting them dirty.

Gu just started her first year of spring plowing at the vegetable base in Luliang County in southwest China's Yunnan Province. The county abounds with grains, vegetables and flowers.

Unlike traditional farmwork, Gu doesn't need to till land or apply fertilizers. Base workers put vegetable seedlings inside the tubes for them to absorb nutrients in water solvent.

Inside the intelligent greenhouses, innovative facilities have been installed to control the temperature, light, water and carbon dioxide for soil-free planting.

Covering more than 700 mu (around 47 hectares), the hydroponics vegetable base is operated by an agricultural technology company focusing on agricultural production and farming techniques.

"Through the innovation of equipment and improvement of planting techniques, we have created a vegetable brand known to be green, ecological, high quality and efficient," said Li Weilin, manager of the administration department of the company.

Li said the base has also set up separation belts to prevent pests.

The amount of water and fertilizers used for hydroponic vegetables only accounts for about 10 percent of that used in soil cultivation, which saves 70 percent of labor as well. But the output value per mu has exceeded 140,000 yuan (about 20,000 U.S. dollars).

In order to promote soilless cultivation, the local government invested a lot in introducing high-end agricultural facilities in recent years. An advanced planting concept that features an automatic water and fertilizer control system has become pervasive among local farmers.

In 2019, Luliang expanded its vegetable planting to a total area of 660,000 mu including multiple cropping, and sold about 1.5 million tonnes of vegetables.

Li said a 700-mu base can produce 25,200 tonnes a year with a total output value of more than 100 million yuan, an increase of 14,700 tonnes and 79.8 million yuan over soil cultivation.

Jiao Cuiying, 41, used to live in poverty. But since working for the company, her life has turned around. She can now afford to cover the university tuition of her children.

"In the past, my land could only be used to grow corn, and the meager harvest was barely enough to cover the costs. But now I have transfered the land to the company for rent, while working on it for a salary, raking in a double income," said Jiao.