China’s agricultural drones: how far can the most down-to-earth “black technology” fly?

Some people say that agricultural drones are a powerful tool for new farmers and the most down-to-earth “black technology”; Take the golden key.Starting from Henan in February, he went all the way north to Hebei and Shandong to spray wheat. In June and July, he returned to Liaoning to focus on the hazelnut orchard. In August, he moved to the cotton field in Xinjiang, and then went to the orchard in the south. This is Chen Song, a young man from Liaoning.

Cross-regional operation roadmap.From Mai Ke who used to walk around the world with a scythe, to agricultural machine operators who drove harvesters around, now, there is a new group of pilots in the army of cross-regional operations. man-machine.In southern economic crops, drone operations have more room for development. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang WenbinIn recent years, driven by the huge market demand, plant protection drones, which were born to solve the pain points of spraying medicine, have developed rapidly in my country. According to the data of the National Agricultural Technology Center, the number of plant protection drones in my country in 2016 was only about 4,000. By 2021, the plant protection drones of professional pest control service organizations alone will exceed 120,000, and the operating area will exceed 1.07 billion mu. , there are more than 200,000 pilots active in the fields.With the expansion of application scenarios, the functions of plant protection drones are no longer limited to spraying medicine, and the industry’s title for them has also been replaced by “agricultural drones”. Some people say that agricultural drones are a powerful tool for new farmers and the most down-to-earth “black technology”; Take the golden key. At the same time, evaluations such as “a blue ocean of hundreds of billions of dollars” and “a cool new job with high salaries” have been repeatedly mentioned. This industry has high hopes and unlimited imagination, and many halos have been added, but there has been no shortage of doubts.What changes has the development of drones brought to agriculture? What is the actual application effect? What are the personal experiences of front-line practitioners? The reporter tried to outline the true face of this industry from multiple dimensions.From novelty to standardDrones fly into the homes of thousands of farmers”I didn’t believe it at the beginning. How effective is it to spray medicine with such a small amount of water?” Cheng Guolin, a farmer in Gannan County, Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, had doubts like most people when he first came into contact with drones in 2018. Cheng Guolin planted 600 mu of rice. He used to hire people to spray pesticides. Sometimes, he had to hire seven or eight people a day. Each person farmed 30 mu of land a day. It took two or three days to complete one round. Each mu needed more than ten liters of pesticide solution. quantity. However, plant protection drones can operate 100 acres in one hour, and the amount of liquid medicine per acre of land is less than 1 liter.After seeing the effect after playing, Cheng Guolin was convinced. “Not only is it fast, but it is also sprayed evenly, and the weeding effect is better than manual spraying!” Since then, Cheng Guolin has never hired anyone to spray medicine. In 2019, he simply bought a drone himself. In the past two years, drones have added the function of sowing. Now Cheng Guolin entrusts the drones to complete the sowing, fertilization, and spraying. He told reporters that nowadays local growers basically use drones, and there is almost no manual spraying.”Plant protection is the biggest pain point and difficulty in agriculture. The most difficult thing for farmers to plant is spraying pesticides. Wheat is better. When rice sprays pesticides, it is easy to trap people, high temperature and easy to be poisoned. I have seen artificial He was poisoned by spraying medicine.” Wu Minggang, who entered the industry in 2015, is one of the first batch of pilots in the country. When drones were first promoted in Heilongjiang, farmers didn’t believe them, so they could only go door-to-door to spray medicine for free for comparison. Wu Mingang also encountered the embarrassment that they used the drone to shoot once before, and the farmers were worried and used the sprayer to shoot again.Pilot Wu Minggang is manipulating the drone for fertilization.However, after two years of application and promotion, the flying defense was gradually accepted and recognized by farmers, and it began to grow explosively in 2017 and 2018. If drones were considered a novelty in the past, they have almost become standard equipment for social service organizations and new farmers.A set of data also confirmed this change. In 2015, the number of agricultural drones in Heilongjiang Province was about 300 units, with an operating area of less than 1 million mu times; by 2018, the number had rapidly increased to 2,437 units, with an operating area of more than 26 million mu times; 17,000 units, the operating area exceeds 200 million mu, and the penetration rate of flying defense is nearly 90%. At the same time, in 2021, the province’s drone sowing operation area will exceed 100 million mu, covering nearly 50% of the rice fields for fertilization.Not only in Heilongjiang, but Xinjiang’s anti-flying penetration rate will reach 80% in 2021. Thanks to the large-scale application of anti-flying defoliants, the mechanization level of cotton in Xinjiang has been greatly improved. In Henan, the granary of the Central Plains, in 2017, drones were used to control wheat diseases and insect pests. In May 2018, the “Thousands of People, Thousands of Machines” event was held in Anyang. In 8 days, more than 2 million acres of wheat pests and diseases were controlled and controlled, and the platform supervision was realized throughout the process. The advantages of large-scale control of pests and diseases within a short period of time.Since 2013, the former Ministry of Agriculture has promoted the low-altitude and low-volume aerial spraying technology of plant protection drones across the country. The National Agricultural Technology Center has held drone field operation demonstrations and technical training activities in many provinces for three consecutive years. In 2015, Hunan and Henan piloted subsidized plant protection drones for the first time. With the increasing emphasis on support in various places, the continuous introduction of favorable policies, and the significant increase in subsidies for purchasing drones, drones have gradually flown into the homes of thousands of ordinary farmers.”my country has become the country with the largest application area of ​​agricultural drones in the world. The survey data for several years show that the effect of aviation plant protection unified defense is 10% to 20% higher than that of farmers’ self-defense, and the use of pesticides is reduced by 20% to 30%. The utilization rate has increased by more than 10%.” Guo Yongwang, a researcher at the National Agricultural Technology Center, said that thanks to the advancement of science and technology, drones have achieved major breakthroughs in intelligent flight control systems, spraying systems, and drug loading. The development has realized the perfect combination of “gun” and “bullet”, and promoted the progress of low-altitude and low-volume spraying technology. The development of drones has played a positive role in the reduction of pesticides, agricultural cost savings and efficiency enhancement, emergency disaster relief, and food security protection, and has also promoted the process of agricultural modernization.Wang Zhiguo, chairman of the National Aeronautical Plant Protection Technology Innovation Alliance, told reporters that drones have become less popular in recent years compared to previous years, because they have been accepted by farmers, and now drones can be seen everywhere, unlike previous years. Years have to rely on the government to promote.The application of drones is innovating and empowering agricultural production methods. For individuals, the most direct feeling is that farming is easier and the cost of fertilization and spraying is lower. Now Wu Minggang has also contracted 2,000 mu of land across districts. He feels that farming with drones is much easier. Before, he dared to contract a few hundred acres of land, but now he has the confidence to contract thousands of acres.China Agricultural Science and Technology Signboard”One specialty and multiple capabilities” UAV leads the worldJust before 2010, my country did not have a self-developed plant protection drone, and the application level of agricultural aviation was far behind that of the United States, Japan and other countries. In just over ten years, my country’s plant protection drones have completed the transformation from “toy” to “tool”, from “performance level” to “practical level”, and from “following” to “leading” the development of the global industry.Wu Minggang clearly remembers that in 2015 and 2016, the plant protection drones were relatively simple, unable to automatically plan routes, and had no cameras. A drone needed three people, one responsible for control, one for charging, adding medicine, There must be a person running to the opposite side to watch, and the drone should shout when it flies to the end. Before taking off, it is necessary to manually plan the route in advance and mark obstacles such as utility poles. The operating efficiency is only two to three hundred acres a day.”In the beginning, it was purely manual operation, which had high requirements for the pilots. If you are not careful, it is easy to collide with the aircraft. It takes more than a month to train the pilots. Today’s drones can be said to be fool-like, and they can be operated with a mobile phone. UAV. Not only can it automatically avoid obstacles, but it can also automatically go around obstacles, and it also has a 360-degree anti-collision function. The operation is very simple, and you can get started after two or three days of training.” Wu Minggang has a deep understanding of this.The reporter learned from interviews that at present, drone products can basically achieve stable performance and durable leather, which has become a consensus in the industry. Battery fast charging technology has been gradually improved, and aircraft protection has been significantly improved, which can basically meet the actual needs of agricultural production, especially the field crop pesticide application technology has matured. If there were still doubts about the performance and operation effect of drones in the past few years, with the continuous verification of practice, it has now been unanimously affirmed by industry insiders and farmers.