Digital agriculture, precision agriculture, and smart agriculture are moving from ideal to reality step by step.

Recently, the fifth episode of the large-scale industrial documentary “The Cornerstone of a Powerful Country”, “Chasing Dreams”, jointly created by China Central Radio and Television and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, was broadcast on CCTV Finance Channel, which demonstrated its technological innovation capabilities in the field of smart agriculture. And the story of empowering rural youth to pursue their dreams and start businesses.

How can young people be willing to engage in agricultural production? How to regain competitiveness in agriculture? Promoting the redistribution of the agricultural value chain through unmanned technology is at least one of the current directions of the industry’s efforts.

UAV flying defense is an important variable that technology empowers traditional agriculture.

UAV flying defense can not only realize the separation of man and machine, separation of man and medicine, and avoid the poisoning of pesticides to the human body, but also can greatly improve efficiency through the form of fully autonomous operation. At present, drones have penetrated into various links such as planting, fertilizing, and spraying of crops, and the scope of operations has also extended from the low crops in the field to the high-stem crops and economic crops.

What is the current status of UAV plant protection and flight defense? What are the new development trends and developments in the near future, and what are the current deficiencies? What will it mean for the future of my country’s smart agriculture?

“Tanker Tanker” contacted relevant experts, plant protection teams, and important manufacturers in the industry to get a glimpse of the importance of intelligent products represented by drones in the process of agricultural industrialization and digitalization in the context of rural revitalization. Boost role.

1. Let young people willingly return to their hometowns to farm

Among the applications in the UAV industry, plant protection and flying defense is undoubtedly the best-developed field so far. According to data from the Foresight Industry Research Institute, in 2020, my country’s civil drone market will have the largest proportion of agricultural, forestry and plant protection drones, reaching 42%, which is much higher than that of drones in power inspections, logistics transportation, and security. Accounted for.

“Agricultural plant protection is one of the biggest problems in agricultural production, because the spraying of pesticides coincides with the high temperature season of agricultural production, coupled with the aging of China’s agricultural workers, and the risk of poisoning caused by unreasonable use of pesticides. In the future, spray robots will be used to replace manual operations. Realizing the separation of humans and machines, separation of humans and medicines, and improving efficiency are its main development directions.” Professor He Xiongkui, Dean of the UAV System Research Institute of China Agricultural University and Director of the Research Center for Pharmaceutical Devices and Drug Application Technology of China Agricultural University, commented on “Explore Tanker” Express.

At present, the rapid development of plant protection and flying defense is also closely following the development trend of agriculture. In addition to the adaptability of plant protection drones to various terrains, the drones “separation of man and machine, separation of man and medicine” can spray drugs without crushing the ground, contacting crops, and causing no damage. These are all drones. The advantages of it are also one of the important reasons why it attracts young people willing to return to their hometowns to farm.

Born in 1960, Wang Bingnan has been working in the front line of Xinjiang for many years. He believes that UAV plant protection can obviously add points to young people for farming. “Many farmers don’t want to spray drugs manually, and they are more and more like to use drones, even if it is only 35 acres of land.”

Before Wang Bingnan was a teacher and a cadre in charge, he later began to engage in agricultural resources. In 2013, when he went to Korla, where a large area of ​​cotton was grown, he found that every year people died of pesticide poisoning in the area. After understanding the relevant situation, he and his friends did a market survey and found that the business of using drones instead of manpower to spray pesticides has a promising future. After that, he and his friends set up a company that started with plant protection and took care of the business of selling pesticide and fertilizer seeds.

“The emergence of smart agricultural production tools such as agricultural drones has gradually changed the production model of’facing the loess and backing the sky’ in the traditional agricultural management process, replacing the traditional dangerous and complicated manual labor with high-tech equipment, so that farmers no longer have to Worried about the hard work of farming.” Gong Juqin, co-founder of Jifei Technology, told Tanker Tanker.

In his view, with the popularization and application of intelligent equipment such as agricultural drones, emerging jobs such as drone pilots and drone instructors have appeared in rural areas, bringing more brand new and decent jobs to rural young people. The choice of career makes young people willing to stay in the country. More importantly, as the product technology becomes more intelligent and the threshold for use is lowered, driven by young people, more and more old farmers are also beginning to use agricultural drones for operations.

“As far as I know, the age range of people who use Jifei agricultural drones now ranges from young men in their 20s to old farmers in their 60s.” Gong Yanqin said.

Recently, CCTV’s large-scale industrial documentary “The Cornerstone of a Powerful Country” “Chasing Dreams” reported the stories of those young people returning home. One of the protagonists, Yan Wenjiong, was born in 1996. He joined the drone plant protection industry after retiring and returning home. He led the team this year Through social bidding, the local county government won a million-mu-level wheat unified defense and rule order.

Because he has to complete the task within a week, he has to dispatch more than 200 agricultural drones to operate at the same time every day to complete the plant protection task of 100,000 acres.

“During the period of the reign of unified wheat defense, in Anhui, Henan, Shaanxi and other wheat areas, there are more than 100 new farmers like Yan Wenjiong. They dispatch tens of thousands of agricultural drones day and night. Tens of thousands of pilots and farmers guard the safety of the “Chinese Granary”.” Gong Yanqin said.

(Picture / Yan Wenjiong in plant protection operation)

Strengthening agricultural technology and equipment support, building smart agriculture, and comprehensively promoting rural revitalization are also the meaning of the 14th Five-Year Plan.

In 2021, the “No. 1 Document” of the central government puts forward the new goal of “strengthening the support of modern agricultural technology and material equipment”, improve the ability of independent research and development of agricultural machinery and equipment, support the research and development and manufacturing of high-end intelligent, hilly and mountainous agricultural machinery equipment, increase purchase subsidies, and develop agricultural machinery Job subsidies.

“China has nearly 2 billion mu of arable land. Although the comprehensive mechanization rate of farming and harvesting exceeds 70%, there are still weak links, industries and regions, such as plant protection for small and medium fields, plant protection for mountain orchards, etc.” Fan Wenze, Director of DJI Agricultural Marketing Said to “Explore Tanker”.

He believes that, compared with ground machinery, agricultural drones not only have higher efficiency, but also have the advantages of strong terrain adaptability and high level of intelligence. The popularization of drones, especially in areas with weak mechanization, can improve the overall mechanization and automation level of the agricultural “seed management” link.

According to Ye Wencheng, secretary general of the Central Plains Plant Protection Alliance, the lack of attractiveness of traditional agriculture for young people has always been an important issue hindering agricultural development. Can intelligent equipment such as drones attract talents to return and give young people a enthusiasm for farming? Not at all.

“Everyone knows that Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or big cities are particularly attractive, and everyone is very enthusiastic about these cities, but it is never the high-rise buildings in the city that attracts everyone, but the development opportunities in the city. It is possible in these cities. Earn money. Following this line of thinking, in the future, if the rural areas want to attract young people, they should also rely on development opportunities and let everyone see that they can earn money by doing agriculture.” Ye Wencheng said.

In his view, although there is a lot of room for agriculture and there must be many opportunities, rural revitalization has just begun. “We are just the group of people closest to the opportunity, but we must learn to look for and discover opportunities.”

2. Transform the agricultural “value depression”

Today, plant protection drones have tilted from a high price threshold to a cost price, and the industry threshold has been continuously lowered. The industry giants have gradually become clear. DJI and Jifei have become the “double giants” of drone plant protection.

Fan Wenze, Director of DJI Agricultural Marketing, introduced that as of September 29, 2021, the annual operating area of ​​DJI plant protection machines exceeded 1 billion mu, with a growth rate of over 90%. The achievement of this data represents that UAVs will not only be popularized in Datian in the north, but also have large-scale applications in the middle and small fields in the south. This is the general situation of DJI plant protection machines in spraying applications.

(Picture / Operation site of DJI plant protection machine)

In terms of spreading and fruit tree applications, there is no shortage of traces of DJI drones.

“This year, with the maturity of drone solid sowing technology, fertilizer sowing has achieved breakthroughs in Heilongjiang, Jiangsu and other regions. It is not only efficient, but also more uniform.” Fan Wenze said that China alone has 450 million rice planting areas. With the launch of a series of technologies, the broadcast application market will enter a period of rapid popularization.

At present, Heilongjiang drone sowing operations have exceeded 60 million mu times, but in other large planting areas across the country, drone fertilizer sowing is still in the early stages of development.

(Picture / DJI agricultural drone in operation)

In terms of fruit tree applications, according to the data provided by DJI Agriculture, China’s fruit tree planting area is about 200 million mu, and the average annual operation scale will exceed 1.7 billion mu. This is a huge market.

“In the past year, with the improvement of spraying effect and the optimization of the operation process, the fly defense of fruit trees has also been applied on a large scale in Hainan, Guangxi, Jiangxi and other regions. Especially in Hainan, drones have not only helped the local mango orchard to achieve full automation. Work, reduce labor dependence, and also achieved a 30% reduction in pesticides. With the implementation of a series of technical applications for orchard scenes, this market will continue to enter the popularization period.” Fan Wenze said.

(Picture / UAV dispensing site)

According to “Explore Tanker”, plant protection operations involve many professional issues. For example, different crops have different spraying methods. If the pilot is unprofessional, it may affect the effectiveness of the operation.

“China has a vast land and abundant resources. Different crops are grown in various provinces and regions according to local conditions. The growth habits and management requirements of different crops are also different. This is an objective situation.” Gong Junqin said, Jifei researched and innovated intelligent and unmanned agricultural technology Products and technologies focus on the pain points in the “cultivation and harvesting” of different crops. These objectively existing pain points in agricultural production are also market opportunities for Jifei.

(Picture / Jifei UAV operating in the cotton field)

For example, cotton, as one of the largest economic crops in my country, is also the starting point for Jifei to enter agriculture. In 2013, the Jifei team discovered in Xinjiang that agricultural drones can effectively kill insects, weeding and chemical regulation of cotton and other management links, which have a broad market demand.

Therefore, starting from the verification of technology on cotton, Jifei has been deeply involved in the different pain points and scenarios of the production and management of the three major food crops of rice, corn, and wheat, including sowing, fertilizing, spraying, etc., through functional modularization of the products. The design realizes the replacement of intelligent tools for different work scenarios.

“There is also a’smile curve’ in the agricultural value chain. The pre-production supply system and post-production sales and processing system at both ends are of higher value, while the mid-production production system in the middle is a depression of value,” said Gong Qinqin.

With the general rise in international food prices, the state has increased its policy support for seed industry and agriculture, and seed companies in the upper reaches of the agricultural industry chain occupy high-value areas. As for the marketing and brand links in the downstream of the industrial chain, because people’s consumption patterns have changed from pure material consumption to cultural consumption, the market competition for agricultural products has also shifted from price competition, quality competition and service competition to brand competition, and the added value is also significant. rise.

However, the agricultural planting and breeding links in the middle reaches are still facing the dilemma of low technology content, insufficient deep processing and low product quality. They have become the lowest value-added part of the entire value chain and are at the bottom of the “smile curve”.

At present, as more and more agricultural science and technology products and technologies are implemented, on the one hand, production efficiency has been improved and the heavy and repetitive work in the production process can be replaced, and the employment cost has been reduced. On the other hand, because advanced technology has brought more precise management , Which effectively saves hard costs such as agricultural inputs, the increase in the two sides has reduced the overall cost of the midstream, and these reduced costs directly increase the income of farmers.

(Picture / Jifei dual-rotor plant protection aircraft V40)

It can be said that thanks to the large-scale use of new technologies in the agricultural field, the entire agricultural value chain will be more balanced. At the same time, because of the reduction in production costs, it will also help China’s agriculture to increase its competitiveness in the world.

3. Why “endure hardship without making money”?

From an objective point of view, as an important embodiment of smart agriculture, drone flight defense is not only helpful to the management of agriculture, but is also reshaping the value chain of agriculture. Then, in the eyes of these front-line operators and practitioners, how do you view it? What is the current status of the flying defense plant protection industry?

(Picture / UAV plant protection operation)

In Ye Wencheng’s view, the drone flight defense industry has begun to take shape, and the development of the plant protection team can be divided into the following four modes:

The first is the traditional model of “earning service fees through cross-regional operations”. Among them, veteran practitioners are familiar with the market, have relatively stable customer resources, and develop steadily; while novices in the industry tend to be too optimistic and can’t accept the cruelty of reality, enter and exit quickly, and many lose money and run away.

The second is the “rooted in the local market” model. Among them, some people have passed the transitional period and are gradually surviving steadily; the other part is in the transitional period, but if they clenched their teeth and persisted, they might gain in the coming year.

The third is the “transformation and agricultural cooperation” model. This is a compromise choice, but relying on others does not maintain long-term stability.

The fourth is the “existing agricultural material distributors take the initiative to increase plant protection business” mode. “This type of team is relatively closed and independent, and is not well known to everyone, but this type of team should focus on learning. After all, they have been cultivating in the agricultural materials industry for many years, and their plant protection knowledge is relatively solid. Being more enlightened and able to actively embrace new things will be an important force in the future flying defense plant protection market.” Ye Wencheng said.

However, he believes that from the perspective of the industry as a whole, the development of UAV plant protection is still not very mature. “Up to now, we can still see pilots who do not recognize the name of the drug, and many of them do not know anything about crop management. Therefore, compared with the iterative progress of equipment, the professional level of practitioners is seriously lagging behind. This is why It is worth learning from the groups that the original distributors of agricultural materials have transformed into flying prevention plant protection or introduced flying prevention plant protection business.”

(Picture / UAV sprays pesticides on the forest)

Fly prevention and plant protection is a seasonally strong livelihood, so everyone migrates “waterweed”-where there is work to go, cross-regional operation is still the main operation method of most plant protection teams.

However, a small part of the team has already “goed ashore”—beginning to get rid of dependence on flight defense fees or dependence on cross-regional operations, actively choose to take root in the local market, have stable customer resources and involve more agricultural machinery services and services. The sale of agricultural materials is also the development model that Ye Wencheng’s alliance has been vigorously promoting in the past two years.

At present, the number of closely connected pilots in the Central Plains Air Defense and Plant Protection Alliance is maintained at about 200. These pilots are experienced and familiar with the market, and each of them has a close team around them. Through the connection of these 200 people, they can quickly The number of responding aircraft is conservatively estimated to be more than 1,000.

“We can deploy more than 300 drones in one day during the peak period of wheat operations, and the response speed is very fast.” The speed of precipitation has not fully kept up with the development of the industry. There are more people entering and exiting fast, so we believe that grasping the core strength in the circle is the key.”

In Wang Bingnan’s view, drones were originally high-tech products with relatively high barriers to entry. Now that the barriers to entry have been lowered, it has also affected the development of the industry, especially the price system of operations is chaotic, and the industry has yet to have a unified standard. “Due to the price confusion, the drone industry gives people the impression of’endure hardship without making money’.”

For example, in the past, a plant protection team lowered the price of spraying drugs to RMB 3 or 4 per acre, which meant that no money was made at all, but it disrupted the industry’s price system.

He believes that it will take at least five or six years for the chaos in the industry to be contained, and many things that are not conducive to development will be eliminated. “Originally I planned to organize a drone pesticide training course, but now I can’t find a suitable sponsor or policy support.”

In general, UAV flight defense has shown a great help in my country’s smart agriculture strategy-allowing smart machines to replace manpower and freeing people’s hands, thereby reducing agricultural production costs and production. Increased efficiency, innovative production methods, increased product yields, and farmers’ incomes… This also makes more young people willing to return to the countryside and become new farmers.

Today, as a new battlefield for new farmers, the drone flight defense industry has not only born a large-scale plant protection team, but also the development and growth of drone manufacturers and the expansion of the application range of agricultural drones. Development is improving. But at the same time, the rapid development of the market has also produced a lot of chaos, and it is urgent to regulate and restrict the policy side in order to allow UAV flight defense to enter a more virtuous development cycle.