Agricultural drones in progress

Smart agriculture is a huge and complex field with high capacity and richness. As a key “tidal head” in the development tide of smart agriculture, agricultural UAV is undoubtedly one of the most representative products. Since 2015, the hardware and application of agricultural UAV have developed rapidly, and the market quantity and operation area have grown rapidly, which has grown into a huge industrial chain of one billion levels. According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, by the end of 2020, China had 662,000 large and medium-sized efficient plant protection machinery and more than 100,000 plant protection UAVs.

With the development of digital agriculture, there will be more zero-to-one products like plant protection drones. They started from a gap in the industry, met an unmet need in the market, and established new standards for products and services, virtually out of thin air, creating a billion-dollar market that affects the way hundreds of thousands of people live and work. So looking back on the development of agricultural drones, it’s a great example for the digital agriculture industry.

As an industry observer, 35 Dou would like to present the following information in this article:

1. The advent of the era of unmanned agriculture.

2. The best combination of key leap, innovation and scene;

3. There are three obstacles for agricultural drones to overcome.

4. Long slope with thick snow, adhere to long-termism in the 10 billion incremental market.

First, the advent of the era of unmanned agriculture

For Chinese people, most people’s concept of drones is consumer drones for aerial photography. They are light in shape, have various functions, provide diversified shooting perspectives, and are relatively affordable. Users at almost all levels of consumption can find their favorite aerial photography products.

But applying drones to agriculture is another matter entirely, and must go from “professional toys” to “productivity tools”. In other words, agriculture needs a flying tractor, not a toy.

The application of plant protection UAVs is very early in foreign countries. The United States, Japan and other countries have been using agricultural aviation products for more than 30 years. In recent years, the penetration rate of agricultural UAVs has reached more than 50%.

Before professional agricultural plant protection drones officially appeared on the market, smart Chinese people were already assembling aircraft for agriculture by themselves. We searched on search engines and found that the combination of “agriculture + drones” appeared in the news as early as 2006, and the term “plant protection drones” appeared in 2009.