“Previously, pesticide spraying by manual required six people to work for two and a half days at a time. Now, the operation of 300 mu (2 hectares) can be completed through a drone in a day,” said Lei Huazhang, head of the Huazhang Planting Cooperative. 

 

He purchased this plant protection drone with 50,000 yuan this year, which has greatly enhanced the efficiency of pesticide spraying.

 

As a characteristic industry of Tangcun Town, Gaofeng Village has more than 800 mu (about 53.33 hectares) of Fengtang plum, with an annual output value of over 4 million yuan, driving more than 30 households to increase an average income by 8,000 yuan. The cooperative will establish an intelligent management system combining drones and Internet of Things this year, which will achieve precise management of water, fertilizer, and medicine integration through intelligent monitoring of fruit tree growth cycles. In addition, more intelligent devices will be added when the plum trees begin to bear fruits at the second phase orchard.

 

 

“I used to spray pesticide with a spray on my back, which caused backache after a whole day’s work. Now a drone can do it faster and better, and there is only some ancillary work we need to do,” said a  villager working in the base.

 

According to calculations, the cost of manual spraying is about 60 yuan per mu (about 0.067 hectares), while that of drone operation is only 15 yuan per mu (about 0.067 hectares), which can make save 27,000 yuan for 600 mu (40 hectares) of orchards and increase efficiency by nearly 10 times. The new device not only frees men from heavy labor, but also reduces pesticide residues through precise atomization technology.

 

 

Chinese source: rednet