In recent years, the Taizhou Medical High-tech Zone in Taizhou, Jiangsu province, has been promoting the mechanization and intelligent construction of agricultural machinery.
At present, the zone has established three provincial-level demonstration bases for the full mechanization of agricultural production, one provincial-level "unmanned farm" for grain production, and more than 260 sets of intelligent agricultural machinery equipment such as unmanned rice transplanters and intelligent monitoring equipment.
Xishao Family Farm, as a prime example, invested over 50,000 yuan ($7,411) last year and was the first in the city to introduce agricultural multispectral drones from DJI.
Before fertilization, the drone takes off to conduct an inspection of the rice fields, relying on technologies such as multispectral imaging to monitor real-time information such as rice growth, biomass, and leaf area index.
By using a drone system data exchange platform, the data generated by the multispectral drone can be imported into the "brain" of crop protection drones to achieve automatic variable precision fertilization, catering to the tailored nutrition needs of rice fields required for growth.
Chen Guiping, the farm operator, said that with the multispectral drone equipment, farming is more worry-free and cost-effective.
Chen Guiping controls a crop protection drone for field fertilization. [Photo/WeChat account: weigg6666]
The variable fertilization and medication of crop protection drones are more precise, increasing operational efficiency by more than 10 percent. This is expected to save costs of 20 to 30 yuan per mu (0.07 hectares) and reduce fertilizer usage by 20 percent, Chen added.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), the zone will accelerate the large-scale application of the Beidou system in agricultural machinery, with plans to add more than 60 agricultural drones.