Japanese companies developing new drones to address the aging problem of farmers

In response to the increasing aging population of Japanese farmers, some companies have developed a new type of agricultural drone, hoping that they can become the next generation ‘successors’ to farmers.

According to reports, developers and farmers in northeastern Japan have been testing a new type of drone in the past few months, which can fly over rice fields and spray pesticides and fertilizers in about 15 minutes. If the farmers were to complete the work themselves, it would take more than one hour.

Drones can also quickly analyze rice and determine how much pesticides or fertilizers are needed, making it easier for farmers to analyze the resources invested and predict the harvest scale.

69 year old rice farmer Yoshihiro Yoshihiro said, “This kind of high-tech is unprecedented.” Yoshihiro comes from the Denami region of Japan, which began supplying rice to Tokyo as early as the 17th century.
Yong Horie Jiang, who is also the head of the local Agricultural cooperative, said that young people left the countryside for big cities, so new agricultural UAVs were developed to solve the problem of labor shortage. We are facing the shortage of the next generation of farmers, so we need to come up with new ideas to improve productivity and farmers’ income through high-tech products such as drones
It is reported that this new UAV, called “Nile-T18”, was developed by the start-up Nileworks Inc. and recently jointly tested with Denami Cooperative and the trading company Sumitomo Corporation.
The purpose of developing this drone is to reduce the physical burden on farmers and improve productivity. Yong Horie Jiang said that the average age of farmers who climb rice is 67 to 68 years old, and there may only be four to five years left to cultivate.
Compared to radio mini helicopters equipped with spraying tools, drones are relatively smaller and cheaper, selling for only 4 million yen. In addition, drones can be charged through the iPad and use an easy-to-use map software system.
Nileworks plans to start selling drones in May next year and is currently in discussions with authorities to allow operators to use drones without a license.