No matter which country, no matter how developed your economy and technology are, agriculture is a basic industry. Food is the first for the people, and agriculture is safe for the world. Agriculture occupies a certain proportion in any country. With the development of modern technology, countries around the world have different levels of application of plant protection drones, but in general, the proportion of drones in agricultural production continues to increase.
1. Development history of agricultural plant protection drones
Japan is one of the first countries to use micro and small agricultural drones for agricultural production. In 1987, Yamaha was commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture of Japan to produce the first agricultural drone, the 20kg-class spraying drone "R-50". After that, Japan used unmanned helicopters extensively in field crops. After more than 20 years of development, Japan has increased from 307 in 1995 to more than 2,400 now, with more than 14,000 operators, and has become the world's largest agricultural drone spraying country.
The United States is regarded as one of the countries with the most mature agricultural aviation application technology. It has experienced the development process from manned helicopter plant protection technology to unmanned aerial vehicle plant protection technology, and has now formed a relatively complete agricultural aviation industry system. According to statistics, there are currently more than 9,000 agricultural aircraft in the United States, accounting for 28% of the world's total ownership, and the direct contribution rate of agricultural aviation to agriculture is more than 15%.
Russia has a large area with sparse population, and also adopts drone plant protection on a large scale. It has a large number of agricultural aircraft operation teams, the number is as high as 11,000, and the annual processing area of arable land accounts for more than 35% of the total arable land.
South Korea is not far behind. Since the first introduction of unmanned helicopters for agricultural aviation operations in 2003, the number of agricultural drones and the area of agricultural aviation operations have been increasing year by year.
2. Classification and related advantages of plant protection drones
There are many types of drones on the market. As far as plant protection drones are concerned, Grignard Battery thinks it can be distinguished from the following two aspects:
1. Divided by power, it is divided into oil animal plant protection drones and electric plant protection drones
2. According to the structure of the model, it is divided into fixed-wing plant protection UAV, single-rotor plant protection UAV and multi-rotor plant protection UAV
So, what are the advantages of using drones for plant protection activities?
In Grignard’s view, first of all, the efficiency of drones is very high, scale operations can reach 120-150 mu per hour, and its efficiency is at least 100 times higher than that of conventional spraying. In addition, it can also ensure the health and safety of agricultural personnel and plant protection. UAVs are operated by ground remote control or GPS flight control, spraying operators operate remotely to avoid the danger of exposure to pesticides, and improve the safety of spraying operations.
Secondly, agricultural drones save resources, correspondingly reduce plant protection costs, and can save 50% of pesticide usage and 90% of water consumption.
In addition, the plant protection drone has the characteristics of low operating height, less drift, and hovering in the air. The downward airflow generated by the rotor when spraying pesticides helps increase the penetration of the logistics to the crops and has the advantages of good control effect. Moreover, the overall size of the electric drone is small, light weight, low depreciation rate, easy maintenance, low labor cost per unit operation; easy to operate, the operator can generally master the essentials and perform tasks after about 30 days of training.
3. Five trends in plant protection drones
1. The operation is more concise: the operation of the plant protection UAV is complicated, especially the unmanned helicopter, which has a higher ability for the operator. With the continuous development of plant protection drone technology, the operation of plant protection drones will be more simplified, which will help users to get started.
2. Larger load capacity: The current load of plant protection drones is maintained at 5kg-20kg, and the small amount of payload makes the operation more complicated. It is believed that the load of plant protection drones will become larger and larger in the future.
3. The service system is becoming more and more complete: The current domestic supporting services for plant protection drones are relatively lagging. With the continuous development of the plant protection drone industry, related supporting services, maintenance, insurance, etc. will become more complete and mature.
4. Subsidies are getting more and more generous: More and more provinces in my country have begun to introduce agricultural drones, realizing modern agricultural technology, but currently only Henan, Hunan and Fujian have implemented subsidy policies for the purchase of agricultural drones. It has become an unstoppable trend for agricultural drones to fly into farmland. It is believed that relevant departments will formulate relevant policies to enable farmers to realize scientific farming as soon as possible and embark on the path of scientific prosperity.
5. The most important point is that prices continue to drop: price is one of the key factors that hinder the popularization of plant protection drones. Domestic plant protection drone prices vary, but at least they range from 50,000 to 200,000. With the continuous development of technology, the cost of plant protection drones will drop, and the price will become lower and lower. Secondly, plant protection drone companies compete with each other and adopt methods of improving technology to control costs, thereby reducing prices to create a competitive advantage.
Just considering the above five points, it is enough to see the broad prospects of plant protection drones in the future. Plant protection drones bring new impetus to the development of agriculture.
