From the discovery of the condition to the end of the spraying, the drone “Flying Hand” only took two hours!

On the morning of May 2nd at 11:30, Li Jixu received a call from the Agriculture and Rural Bureau of Linqing City: “Wheat stripe rust was found in the 4000 acre wheat field in Zaoke Village, Tangyuan Town. We will immediately organize drone spraying to prevent it!” Li Jixu is the plant protection drone project manager of Yuanda Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative in Linqing City and also a drone “pilot” (abbreviated as drone pilot). During busy farming hours, he will receive many drone prevention tasks like the one he just did.

At the turn of spring and summer, wheat stripe rust disease occurs quickly and is highly contagious, and the task of flight prevention is urgent. In less than 20 minutes, Li Jixu formed a flight prevention team consisting of 9 plant protection drones and arrived at Yuzaoke Village, including determining the area of the location, contacting community members, preparing pesticides, and drones.

Set up a drone on the open ground, take off, and slowly land about 2 meters away from the wheat. Press the switch on the remote control, and medication will be evenly sprayed out from the nozzle. With the layers of wheat waves stirred up by the wings, it will shine in the sunlight.

The plant protection drone has been updated for several generations, and now the drone is very intelligent. “Li Jixu said,” The medicine box can bear 50 kilograms, can spray 300 acres of pesticide in an hour, and now it can remotely control the pesticide flow, saving both time and medicine. “Nine drones flew together and completed the spraying operation of 4000 acres of wheat fields at 1 pm. It took less than two hours from the discovery of the illness to the end of the flight defense.

Under the action of drugs, the spread of wheat stripe rust will stop, and nine drone pilots sweat beads on their faces in the scorching noon sun. Li Jixu introduced that responding to sudden pests and diseases is one of the basic tasks of drone pilots. In addition, drone defense mainly serves local farmers and provides unified prevention and control measures such as “one spray, three prevention” for wheat to ensure a bumper harvest in the wheat field.

In recent years, the drone industry has developed rapidly. According to data from the Civil Aviation Administration, as of the end of 2021, there were 832000 registered drones in the entire industry, of which agricultural, forestry, and plant protection drones accounted for about 40%, and maintained a clear upward trend.

Li Jixu has been engaged in the plant protection drone industry since 2017, witnessing the transformation of plant protection drones from inside out. Early drones could only carry 8 kilograms and had a range of only over ten minutes, making remote control operations quite cumbersome. The current plant protection drones have a load capacity of up to 50 kilograms, can fly for several hours, and can also set routes on the software to prevent cruise with just one click.

Drones have more functions and become more intelligent, but they are actually simpler to operate, “said Li Jixu. At present, the cooperative has reached cooperation with Dajiang and Hanhe to expand the drone pilot training business, and can obtain the ‘unmanned plant protection aircraft driving certificate’ in 3-5 days. In addition, the cooperative conducts more than 8 training sessions for pilots every year, covering flight safety, drone operation, and plant protection knowledge.

At present, it is the period of wheat heading and blooming, and Li Jixu’s flight prevention work is still ongoing. Although he travels around every day, he still enjoys it. After spraying fertilizer through drones, I feel very satisfied and happy as I watch the villagers clap and say hello to the plane, “said Li Jixu.