In recent years, drones have been used more and more in the vast farmland. Plant protection drones, which have good precision application effects, strong ability to save water and pesticides, and high efficiency in saving time and labor, have been accelerated in application since 2012 and are entering a stage of explosive growth. Although the development prospects are broad, the market ecology is far from mature, and potential development risks such as price wars in the industry still need to be vigilant——
As high-tech agricultural equipment, plant protection drones have good precision application effects, a strong ability to save water and pesticides, and high efficiency in saving time and labor. They have become the “new favorite” in the fields. In just a few years, thousands of drone manufacturing and service companies have emerged. Enterprise, which has greatly alleviated the long-standing problem of “difficulty in spraying pesticides” in my country’s agricultural plant protection links. In the current shortage of rural labor, plant protection drones have broad prospects. However, as an emerging industry, the development of plant protection drones is affected by many factors such as technology, policy, and market. How high can it fly?
Plant protection drones have become the “new favorite” of farmland
Plant protection drones have high operating efficiency. Compared with traditional manual spraying, the working efficiency of each plant protection drone is equivalent to 60 laborers, which can significantly save rural labor. Plant protection drones can save 30% of their labor when spraying pesticides. Pesticides and 90% of water resources.
In recent years, China’s agricultural aircraft used for crop protection have developed rapidly. New models and new technologies are widely used in the prevention and control of various crop diseases and pests such as rice, wheat, corn, sugar cane, fruit trees, and cotton. Statistics provided by the China Agricultural Mechanization Association show that as of the end of June this year, there were about 130 manned agricultural aircraft in service in China, mainly concentrated in Heilongjiang and Xinjiang. Among them, Beidahuang General Aviation Company has 101 domestic and foreign models. The annual operation covers an area of about 30 million acres. Since 2012, the application of plant protection drones has accelerated year by year, and the products cover single-rotor, multi-rotor, oil-powered, electric and other varieties. By the end of 2018, the number of domestic plant protection drones has reached more than 30,000, and the number of plant protection drones in the country has reached 30,000. The annual operating volume reaches 300 million acres. It is expected that by the end of 2019, the number of aircraft will exceed 40,000, and the operating area will exceed 400 million acres.
The demand for agricultural production and the popularity of farmers is one of the main reasons for the rapid development of plant protection aircraft, especially plant protection drones. The level of mechanization of agricultural plant protection in China is low, and pesticide application technology is backward. More than 70% of areas use manual backpack spraying machines or motorized spraying machines, especially in southern rice-producing areas. Since there is no suitable ground plant protection machinery for pesticide application in rice fields with water, We can only rely on manual labor to carry semi-mobile pesticide application equipment. In hot weather, workers are prone to poisoning and casualties. The popularization and use of plant protection drones can not only effectively reduce pesticide poisoning and casualty accidents, but also have the significant advantages of saving water and pesticides, not damaging crops, being convenient and efficient, easy to dispatch and transfer, and widely adaptable to environmental conditions.
Plant protection drones have changed my country’s traditional manual spraying of pesticides for plant protection, and have broad market prospects and huge potential. At present, our country has 2 billion acres of cultivated land, and the annual area where pests and diseases occur is 4 to 5 billion acres. However, the annual operating area of plant protection drones is far less than the total control area, and the supply exceeds demand.
Although plant protection drones have broad development prospects, there are also many negative factors. all elements of the plant protection drone market are not perfect, and the market ecology is still far from mature. The popularization of aerial plant protection knowledge, the construction of sales and service channels, and the establishment of a business model for plant protection teams all require heavy investment and long-term operations.
Technological innovation enhances core competitiveness
Under the overall good development situation of plant protection machinery, plant protection drones have become an investment hotspot in the industry. The development of plant protection drones in China began at the beginning of this century. According to UAVLUTIONS’ incomplete statistics, there are currently 400 plant protection drone manufacturers competing in China.
As competition intensifies, the plant protection drone market has entered a critical period of accelerating reshuffle in the past two years. Some model aircraft production and processing companies and assembly manufacturers with small production scale, no independent research and development capabilities or poor profitability have been eliminated. A group of independent research and development companies have been eliminated. Companies with advantages in capabilities and production scale have gradually developed into industry leaders.
The safety and reliability of plant protection drones are the issues that consumers are most concerned about, and they are also the focus of corporate research and development. In recent years, in the face of full market competition, plant protection drone companies have greatly increased their investment in technology research and development under agricultural production environment conditions compared with previous years. In the mature and widely used field crop plant protection pesticide applications, they have fully independent planning. Based on route flight operations, automated and intelligent technologies such as precise positioning, obstacle avoidance, ground-imitating flight, and night flight have gradually developed and matured, enhancing the safety functions of plant protection aircraft and greatly improving the adaptability of plant protection drones to environmental conditions. .
Technological development will never end. There is room for further improvement in the application of plant protection drone technology, and the construction of standards and specifications is very necessary, but it should never hinder companies from taking the initiative to improve and enhance the performance and quality of agricultural drone products based on market and user needs. Obstacles to the level of intelligence.
Ensure the healthy development of industry standards
As an emerging industry, the development prospects of plant protection drones are attractive, but the market ecology is far from mature. Relevant national departments, industry associations and enterprises must work together to ensure the healthy development of industry standards and reduce chaos in the plant protection drone industry.
We must prevent the entire industry from falling into a price war vortex. The reporter learned during the interview that although domestic plant protection drones have just started, with the rapid development of the industry, signs of a price war have emerged. The price of a plant protection drone has dropped from more than 20,000 USD to 8,000 to 10,000 USD or even 5,000 USD. Continuous low-price competition will inevitably affect the improvement of product quality, thereby affecting the healthy development of the entire industry. Plant protection drone manufacturers should try to avoid vicious price competition and improve market competitiveness by improving product quality.
We must also avoid misunderstandings in the development of heavy-payload UAVs. At present, domestic plant protection drones are mainly based on small and medium-sized electric motors. Due to the limitations of chemical liquid filling and simultaneous replacement of batteries, the pesticide load is generally around 15 liters, and take-off and landing are relatively frequent. Some companies regard the load capacity and battery life of plant protection drones as the key to improving their competitiveness and strive to develop drones with larger payloads. Some companies have developed a plant protection drone with a pesticide load of 80 liters, with a daily operation volume of 1,500. acre to about 2,000 acre. However, this type of heavy payload drone is more suitable for large-area fields in the north such as Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia. However, it has little use in most small fields between 20 acres and 200 acres across the country.
It is necessary to treat the issue of intelligent plant protection drones rationally and perform basic functions well. The industry generally believes that intelligence is the future development direction of plant protection drones. In UAVLUTIONS’s view, plant protection drones are not agricultural machinery in the traditional sense, but a new type of information tool and smart agricultural equipment that can use agricultural IoT systems to assist production decisions, scientifically manage farmland, and achieve full traceability of crop production. From the current point of view, plant protection drones integrate “remote sensing + pesticide application” to achieve precise/variable pesticide application, and can quickly analyze and diagnose farmland information, and carry out unmanned inspection of farmland, monitoring of pests and diseases, drought conditions, and seedling emergence rate assessment, production forecast, etc. However, plant protection is still the most basic function of agricultural drones. While companies are vigorously promoting intelligence, they must down-to-earth develop and produce high-quality drones that can meet farmers’ plant protection requirements for weeding, insecticide, and fertilization.