China’s agricultural drones: The most down-to-earth “black technology”?

Some people say that agricultural UAV is a powerful tool for new farmers, and it is the most grounded “black technology”. Some people say that agricultural drones are an excellent entry point for social services and a golden key to unlock smart agriculture and precision agriculture.

Starting FROM HENAN in February, he will GO north to Hebei and Shandong to dosing wheat, return to Liaoning in June and July to attack hazelnut garden, turn to Xinjiang cotton field in August, and then go to the southern orchard. This is the road map of one year’s cross-district operation of Chen Song, a young man from Liaoning.

From wheat customers with scythes to farm operators with harvesters, a new group has joined the ranks of those working across the region: fliers, armed with aerial drones.

In recent years, as driven by the huge market demand, the plant protection unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which are born to solve the pain point in medicine have been developed rapidly in our country. Data from the National Agricultural Technology Center show that in 2016, the number of plant protection UAVs in China was only about 4,000. By 2021, the number of plant protection UAVs organized by the professional prevention and control of diseases and insect pests has exceeded 120,000, with the operation area exceeding 1.07 billion per mu and more than 200,000 pilots active in the fields.

With the development of application scenarios, the function of plant protection UAV is no longer limited to medicine, and its title in the industry has been replaced by “agricultural UAV”. Some people say that agricultural UAV is a powerful tool for new farmers, and it is the most grounded “black technology”. Some people say that agricultural drones are an excellent entry point for social services and a golden key to unlock smart agriculture and precision agriculture. At the same time, “hundreds of billions of market blue ocean”, “cool and high-paying new career” and other evaluations have been mentioned repeatedly, this industry is placed on high hopes and unlimited imagination, a lot of halo, but there has been no lack of doubts.

How will the development of drones transform agriculture? How does it work in practice? What are the personal feelings of frontline practitioners? The reporter tries to outline the real face of this industry from many dimensions.

Drones fly into the homes of millions of farmers

“At the beginning, I don’t believe that the effect of this amount of water can be good.” Like most people, Cheng Guolin, a farmer in Gannan county, Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province, was skeptical when he first came across drones in 2018. Chengguolin planted 600 mu of rice. In the past, it used to hire seven or eight people a day to beat 30 mu of land. It took two or three days to finish the rice, and each mu needed more than ten liters of liquid medicine. By using the plant protection UAV, 100 mu can be operated in one hour, and the amount of ground medicine and liquid in one mu is less than 1 liter.

After seeing the effect, Cheng Guolin convinced. “Not only fast, but also evenly sprayed, weeding effect is better than manual beating!” Since then, Cheng has never hired anyone to fill his prescription, and in 2019 he bought a drone. In the past two years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have added the function of sowing. Now, Chengguolin has entrusted UAVs to finish sowing, fertilizing and spraying. He told reporters that local farmers now mostly use drones, almost no manual spraying.

“Plant protection is the biggest pain point and difficulty in agriculture. The most difficult thing for farmers to cultivate is to use medicine. Wheat is a little better, but rice is easy to sink in the field, and it is also high temperature and easy to be poisoned. I have seen artificial poisoning in the field next to it.” Wu Minggang, who entered the industry in 2015, is one of the earliest flying artists in China. When drones were first introduced in Heilongjiang, farmers were incredulous and had to go door-to-door for free. Wu Minggang also encountered them in front of the drone over again, the farmers do not trust and take the spray device to hit again the embarrassment.

However, after two years of application and promotion, it was gradually accepted and recognized by farmers, and began to explode in 2017 and 2018. If drones were once a novelty, they are now almost standard fare for social service organizations and new farmers.

One set of data confirms the change. In 2015, the number of agricultural UAVs in Heilongjiang Province was about 300, and the operation area was less than 1 million mu. By 2018, the number of units has rapidly increased to 2,437, with an operation area of more than 26 million mu. In 2021, the total number of units in the province has reached 17,000, and the operating area is more than 200 million per mu, and the penetration rate of flight prevention is nearly 90%. At the same time, in 2021, the area of UAV seeding operation in the province exceeded 100 million mu, covering nearly 50% of the paddy fields.

Not only in Heilongjiang, but also in Xinjiang, the penetration rate of flying control reached 80% in 2021. Thanks to the large-scale application of flying control defoliant, the mechanization level of cotton in Xinjiang has been greatly improved. In Henan, the breadbasket of the Central Plains, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used to control wheat diseases and pests since 2017. In May 2018, the “Thousands of people and Thousands of Aircraft” event held in Anyang completed the unified control of wheat diseases and insect pests over 2 million mu in 8 days, and realized the platform supervision in the whole process. It became a landmark event in the industry, and also fully reflected the advantages of aviation plant protection in large-scale disease and insect pests control in a short period of time.

Since 2013, the former Ministry of Agriculture has promoted the low-altitude and low-volume aerial application technology of plant protection drones throughout the country. The National Agricultural Technology Center has held UAV field operation demonstration and technical training activities in several provinces for three consecutive years. In 2015, Hunan and Henan piloted subsidized plant protection drones for the first time. With the increasing attention and support from various places, favorable policies are constantly introduced, and the subsidy for purchasing aircraft increases significantly, drones are gradually flying into thousands of ordinary rural households.

“China has become the country with the largest agricultural UAV application area in the world. Survey data for several consecutive years show that the effect of aviation plant protection and unified control is 10% to 20% higher than that of farmers’ self-control, the use of pesticides is 20% to 30% lower, and the utilization rate of pesticides is more than 10% higher.” Guo Yongwang, a researcher at the National Agricultural Technology Center, said that thanks to the progress of science and technology, UAVs have achieved significant breakthroughs in intelligent flight control system, spraying system, drug loading and other aspects. In addition, with the development of pesticide preparations, the perfect combination of “gun” and “bullet” has been realized, and the progress of low-altitude and low-volume application technology has been promoted. The development of UAVs has played a positive role in pesticide reduction, agricultural cost-saving and efficiency improvement, emergency relief and food security, and also promoted the process of agricultural modernization.

Wang Zhiguo, chairman of the National Aviation Plant Protection Technology Innovation Alliance, told reporters that in recent years, drones have become less “popular” than in previous years, because they have been accepted by farmers and are now seen everywhere, unlike a few years ago, which had to be promoted by the government.

The application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is revolutionizing and empowering agricultural production methods. For individuals, the most direct feeling is that farming is more effort-saving and the cost of fertilization and medicine is lower. Now Wu Minggang has contracted 2,000 mu of land across the district. He feels that it is too easy to farm with drones. Before, he dared to package hundreds of mu of land, but now he has the confidence to package thousands of mu.