Unmanned Farm “Wise” Farming Saves Money and Seasons, Also Increase Income

On the morning of August 2nd, a large area of rice fields in Hedong Village, Gongdao Town, Hanjiang District was lush and thriving. Buzz… “Two DJI T50 plant protection drones swept over the rice fields, and pesticides were evenly sprayed onto the rice plants under the airflow.

Recently, the main focus has been on spraying pesticides to prevent rice planthoppers, rice sheath blight, and supplementing some fields with urea and compound fertilizers… “Xu Jiyu, the head of Xu Yang’s family farm, introduced that according to the different conditions of the fields, each plant protection drone can spray pesticides on 500 to 700 acres per day and fertilize 4-5 tons, In addition to drones, the farm is also equipped with unmanned tractors, unmanned rice transplanters, unmanned harvesters, etc. We have planted 600 to 700 acres of land ourselves and provided planting services for the surrounding 30000 to 40000 acres. In the past, these could only be dreams, but now they have all become reality, all thanks to high technology.\

The reporter learned that in 2021, Hanjiang District launched the construction of a comprehensive mechanization demonstration zone (county) for agricultural production. By the end of 2022, the comprehensive mechanization level of crop production, cultivation, and harvest in the region will be 90.1%, and the mechanization technology level of characteristic agriculture will be 70.4%.

Unmanned farms are a new model for solving the shortage of arable land, improving production capacity and efficiency, and exploring the high-quality development of urban modern agriculture. The person in charge of the Agricultural and Rural Bureau of Hanjiang District introduced that in recent years, they have actively communicated with the new agricultural production and operation entities in the entire region, understood the real needs of farmers, actively promoted the construction of demonstration bases, strengthened the integration of information technologies such as the Internet of Things and big data with various fields such as agricultural production, operation, and management, Promote the use of high-end intelligent agricultural machinery and equipment, and create three municipal level unmanned operation demonstration farms, including Siping Family Farm, Tianji Family Farm, and Gongdao Xuyang Family Farm.

It is reported that the Siping Family Farm has a rice and wheat planting area of 480 acres, mainly planting high-quality rice and wheat. Currently, new technologies such as seedling micro drip irrigation, unmanned plant protection machines, unmanned seedling transplanters, and deep fertilization operations have been put into use; The Tianji Family Farm currently has over 600 acres of transferred land and a 500 square meter hangar. It is equipped with supporting equipment such as large tractors, ride transplanters, and straw returning machines, and has preliminary unmanned operation capabilities. These demonstration sites have been operating locally for a long time and have a good reputation among the public. Farmers have a strong willingness to transform and improve, and they will be given provincial and district level financial subsidies based on different basic conditions. The rest will be supplemented by farmers themselves, which not only mobilizes the enthusiasm of users for transformation and improvement, but also solves the worry of insufficient funds.

Through demonstration and leading project creation, the agricultural and rural departments of Hanjiang District and Town encourage and guide farmers to purchase a batch of modern agronomic and unmanned agricultural machinery equipment, use advanced scientific technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and cloud computing, rely on various sensor nodes and 5G communication networks, obtain full cycle agricultural information, and use three-dimensional collaborative operations of “air+ground” and “manual+technology” to achieve intelligent perception, analysis, and management of agricultural production environment Intelligent, unmanned, precise, and visualized decision-making, early warning, and agricultural production of cultivated land, planting, management, harvesting, and plant protection.

At the end of last month, a team of six experts from the Jiangsu Agricultural Machinery Application Center and the Municipal Agricultural Comprehensive Service Center went to Gongdao Town, Hanjiang District to provide guidance on the promotion of the unmanned farm project and promote the construction process of the unmanned farm in Yangzhou City. The investment and use of various new technologies in unmanned farms can improve the efficiency of agricultural machinery operation in the demonstration area by 30% to 50%, save water, fertilizer, and medicine by 10% to 15%, drive surrounding farmers to become rich and increase their income. Visualization, digitization, and standardization also provide assistance for agricultural science disaster reduction and loss reduction, effectively promoting rural revitalization, “said the person in charge of the Municipal Agricultural Comprehensive Service Center.