Plant Protection Drone Perfect Transformation in the Pesticide Industry

In recent years, with the rapid development of science and technology, the rapid development of agriculture, the development of agricultural machinery is a rapid pace of development, the mechanical era is ripe for the coming, in this representative product of agricultural machinery is the pesticide unmanned plant protection machine.

With the rapid development of agricultural modernization, land circulation has become an important measure for the development of modern agriculture. In the production practice, when pests and diseases are outbreaks in large scale, prevention and control of scale become practical “difficulties” and “obstacles”. In recent years, the research, development, and promotion of agricultural plant protection UAVs in China have increased year by year, and there are still many deficiencies in achieving significant results. The reporter learned from the “Seminar on Modern Plant Protection Technology and Use of Pesticide Degradation Technology” on October 24th that the status quo of domestic and international development of plant protection drones, regulatory standards, and future industry development priorities have become the focus of attention in the pesticide industry in China. .

Plant protection drone shines

China is a big country in agriculture and a big producer of pesticides. Pesticides as special agricultural products must be sprayed through plant protection machinery. Efficient use is the primary task of achieving “zero growth” in the use of pesticides. To achieve high efficiency on the basis of drug selection, it must be transported through appropriate equipment. Shao Zhenrun, a researcher at the Ministry of Agriculture's National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center for Pesticides and Pharmaceuticals, said: “Based on our national conditions, the current use of plant protection equipment lacks professional guidance and popular science training. Improper use can easily lead to waste and environmental pollution. How to achieve the pesticide use proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture? The goal of 'zero growth', how to increase the utilization rate of pesticides based on the right medicine, and how to accurately spray pesticides on crops are issues that need to be thoroughly considered.” Shao Zhenrun emphasized that various pesticide production companies are innovating new pesticide products. On the basis of this, more attention should be paid to the updating process of pesticide plant protection equipment, and the two should be closely integrated and coordinated development. The emergence of plant protection drones will mark the era of the agricultural era 2.0, and the era of agriculture 3.0 with high-efficiency equipment and big data applications as standards is approaching. To this end, China's agriculture urgently needs a new service system to complement it.

It is understood that the reason for the rapid development of plant protection UAV in China stems from the development strategy of China's "full mechanization of rice" and "accelerating plant protection machinery R&D". Plant protection drones have developed rapidly in China in recent years. Since 2002, China's general aviation operations have seen a linear increase in the number of flights, and a wide range of crops such as rice, corn, and fruit trees. According to Xiongkui, head of the Plant Protection Machinery and Application Technology Center of China Agricultural University, the world's best-developed UAV is Japan, with a relatively complete service system and after-sales service. The cost of use is about 160 yuan/mu, and the market share is high, reaching over 60%; followed by the United States, mainly manned fixed-wing aircraft, with an annual spraying area of ​​32 million hectares, accounting for 50% of the total arable land, the United States 65 % of chemical pesticides were sprayed using aircraft operations.

“In 2013, China National Agriculture University undertook the “Special Item of Plant Protection Project” of the Ministry of Agriculture, and optimized and evaluated the application technology of plant protection UAVs. At present, China Agricultural University is researching the hydraulic fog for single-rotor UAVs. Spraying systems, ultra-low-volume atomizing nozzles, ultra-low-volume centrifugal atomizing nozzles, unmanned aerial electrostatic spray systems, and special anti-drop and evaporation preparations were studied, hoping to further optimize agricultural aviation equipment and promote the healthy development of the industry." He Xiongkui said.

Chen Xiaobing, a researcher at the Nanjing Agricultural Mechanization Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture, also believes that “the first, plant protection unmanned aerial vehicles have no supporting national and industrial standards, resulting in non-standard production, unordered use, unprofessional flight controllers, and plant protection equipment and applications. Drug operations are unclear, resulting in unnecessary safety incidents.Second, the reliability of domestically produced engines is poor.Thirdly, most of the lithium batteries used for plant protection drones are unmarked, the duration of continuous discharge is short, and the cost of use is high. The reliability of the machine is poor. Fifth, the overall operation performance needs to be improved. Most of the company's products are simple pieces of unmanned aerial vehicles and spray equipment, resulting in unsatisfactory application conditions. Sixth, the drone control system is difficult."

Safe and orderly is the main tone of future development

It is understood that China's agricultural aviation industry has maintained a steady and rapid growth. As of the end of 2010, China's agricultural aviation handled an area of ​​1.70% of cultivated land annually. In the future three “five-year plans”, the average annual growth rate will remain above 2%, that is, up to 10% by 2020 (industrial preparation period) and 20% by 2025 (industrial development period), 2030 (industry Mature area) reaches 30%.

Wang Cuizhang, deputy director of the Jiangsu Provincial Agricultural Machinery Bureau, said that the development of modern agricultural plant protection UAV should focus on "order, health, safety, and innovation" as the core. The so-called orderly development, as the name suggests, should establish the "game" rules in the industry, and no rules will not be a good idea. At present, the Agricultural Aviation Association is soliciting opinions from all parties and formulating a series of standards, including product safety standards, operating standards, application standards, and management specifications. Under the premise of orderly and healthy development, the security required by the state must be achieved. The premise of safe development must be based on the quality of aviation plant protection products. The quality of products must be improved to ensure safety. With product and regulations, aviation plant protection technology needs continuous innovation and improvement. Secondly, in the aviation plant protection field, if we want to continue to develop, we must also follow a general principle. We should closely integrate “human, machine, medicine, and management”. In other words, the combination of farm machinery and agronomy, good guns, sufficient ammunition, and excellent “gunners” can promote orderly, healthy, safe and innovative development of the industry. Ultimately achieve the overall goal of “high efficiency, good results, and maximum efficiency”.

"The development of China's agricultural aviation should be adapted to local conditions and follow the road of 'multiple models and multiple operating methods'. According to the actual conditions of each region, we must select the appropriate type of aircraft. The first is the combination of multiple models and multiple operations to improve the adaptability of aviation plant protection operations. For example, large-area and large-scale farming areas in northeastern China and Xinjiang Provinces should adopt manned fixed-wing aircraft operations, while small-sized agricultural drones should be used in the southern hills and areas with more complex terrain to improve the adaptation of plant protection aviation operations in China. The second is to increase capital investment and strengthen key scientific and technological research projects," said Professor Lan Yubin of South China Agricultural University.

The emergence of plant protection drones has changed the status quo of pesticide control in our country and caused widespread concern in plant protection systems. Tian Zihua, station manager of Jiangsu Plant Protection Station, said in an interview with reporters that in order to ensure the orderly development of plant protection drones, Jiangsu Plant Protection Station has carried out research visits several times, from “people, machines, medicine, heaven and earth. "Visit, harm" six aspects. When visiting development, we should pay attention and nurture from three aspects. One is to raise the awareness of plant protection drones in the hearts of grass-roots farmers, which requires a lot of popular science propaganda work. The second is to improve the research and development of professional and technical personnel and the ability to serve farmers. The third is to strengthen the training supervision of professional operators. Without professional operators, doing more publicity and investigation work is useless. He emphasized that no matter what type of plant protection aircraft is concerned, it must pay attention to reliability, stability, and security.

Facts have proved that under the background of the “zero growth” in the use of pesticides, a group of agricultural machinery enterprises that are bold in innovation are struggling to explore the way. Wuxi Hanhe Aviation Technology Co., Ltd. started the earliest single-rotor field of agricultural aviation. With the continuous innovation of research and development achievements, Hanhe has gradually become a leader in aviation plant protection field. Sun Xiangdong, general manager of Wuxi Hanhe Aviation Technology Co., Ltd., introduced Hansui to establish "7S shop" based on business model innovation. "7S Store" is a joint venture company established in China with drone sales, after-sales service, spare parts supply, order information feedback, fly training, show performances, and crop solutions. It also has a job order. Deal with distribution, plant protection product supply, big data collection and analysis capabilities. According to the Hanhwa strategic plan, 70-100 "7S stores" will be set up nationwide to build a big data information service platform and create a nationwide leading integrated social service system. Shen Jianwen, chairman of Wuxi Hanhe Aviation Technology Co., Ltd., also stated that Wuxi's agricultural modernization is very high and needs to be led by a large-scale agricultural equipment supply team. Therefore, Hanhe will continue to develop a plant protection equipment that will satisfy the farmers and strive to achieve Do not allow farmers to sow, fertilize, and fight drugs, so that farmers can become happy farmland watchers.