Rural revitalization, vocational college students taking off with drones

As a ‘new farmer’ born in the 1990s, Ying Chao has always believed that traditional agriculture can no longer adapt to the development of the times. As a student of the 2021 Jiaxing Vocational and Technical College Plant Protection Drone Training Course, he plans to change traditional planting methods and business models, and explore the development path of agricultural mechanization.He controlled drones to sow and sprinkle pesticides, and he drove rice transplanters, balers, and rake machines one after another into the fields.When in school, one of Ying Chao’s favorite courses is modern management, and the other is the theory and practice of modern agricultural mechanization. He still remembers that the latter was his first time seeing so many new agricultural machinery and equipment, which made him feel “very shocked”.In 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, jointly issued the “14th Five Year Plan for Vocational Skills Training”, proposing the implementation of vocational skills improvement plans such as rural labor transfer. A total of 150 agricultural vocational colleges and 27 agricultural universities nationwide participated in the cultivation of high-quality farmers, cultivating a group of agricultural and rural high skilled talents and rural craftsmen.More and more vocational college students or graduates, like Ying Chao, are investing their vocational skills in the cause of rural revitalization and practicing “rural revitalization, vocational education has great potential” with practical actions.Fly over farmlandTraditional agricultural field work relies entirely on manual labor. During busy farming seasons, dozens or even hundreds of people work in the fields to apply medicine and absorb water… labor is difficult, expensive, inefficient, unstable production capacity, and high costs. Through the transformation of modern agricultural mechanization, drones can solve these problems. In Ying Chao’s words, a machine can even withstand the workload of 100 people. Moreover, drones spread more evenly, and the growth of crops is also better than traditional artificial ones. After the rain, humans cannot immediately enter the fields to work, but drones can.Ying Chao is currently the Secretary and General Manager of the Youth League Branch of Jiaxing Lvkang Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. But compared to these labels, he values his identity more as the first agricultural plant protection drone pilot in Jiaxing South Lake.After three years of efforts, Lvkang Agriculture has achieved full mechanization, with a coverage rate of 100% for high-quality and specialized varieties in the past three years. The rice wheat grain multiple cropping index has reached 98%, and the grain yield per unit area is higher than the average level in Nanhu District. The high-quality late rice yield has reached 11.7 million jin, successfully creating a high-yield demonstration field for grain production in Jiaxing City.He calculated for the reporter that hiring 50 people to complete a day’s work on 500 acres of land would cost nearly 20000 yuan based on the current daily labor cost. If you switch to a drone, you can save 16000 yuan in one day.With these advantages, his farm has attracted more and more people to join this industry. These “new farmers”, like Ying Chao, are all born in the 1990s and have developed into a “leading social service team” in the local area over the years.The current 8 members of the team are all what Ying Chao calls “versatile robots”, and they operate all machines very well. The team’s daily operating capacity can reach 3000 acres.Ying Chao mentioned that every year, the local government provides training to help farmers improve their technical level, such as the “Head Wild Goose” training class for rural revitalization, professional technical training for rice planting, and so on.Starting from 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Finance have launched the “Head Wild Goose” project to cultivate leaders in rural industry revitalization, cultivating new agricultural business entities as leaders in rural industry revitalization. Approximately 20000 “Head Wild Goose” are cultivated annually nationwide, ultimately forming a team of “Head Wild Goose” leaders in rural industry revitalization. In this process, many vocational education related colleges have played a great role.In addition to leading team members to participate in theoretical training, they also improve themselves through practice, visiting cutting-edge enterprises in various regions, and continuously improving the quality and technical level of our team. Sometimes it also reminds him of his experience of studying at Jiaxing Vocational and Technical College, where he learned a lot.Last year, Ying Chao received the “Green Bull Award” for the Youth Pioneer of Rural Revitalization in Jiaxing City, and his farm was also rated as a provincial-level demonstration green and innovative farm.Our drones can be versatile, capable of sowing, fertilizing, preventing and controlling pests and diseases in farmland, as well as feeding livestock, “Ying Chao proudly said.In Ying Chao’s view, drones in rural areas have the opportunity to be useful not only in agriculture, animal husbandry, but also in daily life. During the epidemic, his drone was also used for broadcasting notifications. He hopes that in the future, the operation of agricultural drones can be remotely controlled, and even in extreme weather, drones can be controlled to complete work even while sitting indoors.At present, his farm has established a flight prevention service team using small remote-controlled agricultural plant protection aircraft and other equipment, in order to train more professional technicians and enable vocational education to play a greater role.