Unmanned aerial vehicles assist in painting the “abundant” scenery of West Lake

Cheng Zhaojun, the chairman of Xizhou Agricultural Machinery Professional Service Cooperative, planted over 1800 acres of rice this year. On the morning of August 23rd, he and the pilot demarcated a flight defense area in the farmland of Xizhou Village, Xizhou Township. The contiguous rice plants are tall and tidy, lush and pleasant in growth.

Since the adoption of plant protection drones, agricultural production efficiency has been higher and costs have been lower, “said Cheng Zhaojun. This year, Cheng Zhaojun’s cooperative purchased one plant protection drone, and he roughly calculated that it could save about 100000 yuan in labor costs in one year. A plant protection drone can complete the flight prevention operation of one acre of rice field in just one minute, with a daily operating area of about 200 acres, which is more than 20 times the efficiency of manual spraying and can reduce pesticide use by more than 30%. Compared to manual spraying, plant protection drones are more efficient, safe, economical, and environmentally friendly in flight defense. The cooperative led by him adopts forms such as flowing water seedling cultivation, machine transplanting, tractor cultivation, drone fertilization and pesticide spraying, harvester harvesting, and dryer absorption of water, which has become a microcosm of West Lake’s technological innovation promoting high-quality development of agricultural modernization.

In recent years, the West Lake Management Zone has focused on improving the comprehensive mechanization level of major crops, implementing policies to strengthen, benefit, and enrich farmers, and solidly promoting the rapid and healthy development of agricultural mechanization in the entire region. At present, the grain planting area (including multiple cropping) in the West Lake Management Zone is 66000 acres, including 11500 acres of early rice, with a yield of 543 kilograms per unit and a total yield of 6244 tons, an increase of 18% compared to the same period last year.

We will continue to promote the construction of high standard farmland, vigorously popularize and promote modern agricultural planting techniques, promote the transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, and empower rural revitalization, “said Liu Qi, Director of the Agriculture and Rural Bureau of West Lake Management Zone.