(Tongliao, September 24, 2024) Recently, DJI Agriculture held a UAV corn yield measurement exchange meeting on "Promoting agricultural modernization, a new chapter in corn aerial defense" in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia. The event aims to explore how scientific and technological productivity represented by agricultural drones can participate in the mid- and late-stage plant protection management of corn under the guidance of national policies to achieve the feasibility of increasing production and income. More than 50 people attended the event, including domestic mainstream media, DJI Agriculture dealers, and large-scale growers.

According to Cheng Zhongyi, an engineer of DJI Agricultural Solutions, traditional ground spraying equipment is prone to crushing seedlings, resulting in yield losses. If the operation is carried out after rain, it is also easy to sink into the field, and pests and diseases cannot be prevented in time. In the middle and late stages of corn, due to the high plants, traditional machinery and manual operations cannot be carried out, so most farmers often leave it alone. The average coverage rate of agricultural drones in corn is less than 20%. "In the early stage of corn planting, we usually use agricultural four-wheeled vehicles for spraying, but there will be the situation of crushing seedlings, which is inefficient and low in yield. In the later stage, when the plants grow taller, we will not spray pesticides, mainly because we couldn't spray them in the past." Zhao Hongcheng, a large grower in Tongliao City, said.

"Air" management tool: drone corn flight spraying, increasing yield by more than 10% per mu

Agricultural drones are not restricted by terrain, do not crush seedlings, and have good operation and stable image transmission. They can be used in the whole process of corn plant protection, which can effectively solve the problems of difficult application of pesticides in the middle and late stages of corn and poor prevention and control of pests and diseases, and avoid crop yield reduction.

It is understood that the DJI Agriculture T60 agricultural drone has a capacity of 50 kg spraying load and 60 kg sowing load, and the efficiency of regular field operations can reach 1,000-1,200 acres a day. Facing tall corn crops, DJI's four-antenna O4 image transmission system can ensure smooth and stable images, and achieve a transmission distance of up to 2 kilometers. When the remote control signal is severely blocked, it can also automatically switch to a 4G data link, making the flight safer. In the face of windbreaks around the corn fields, DJI agricultural drones can also achieve RTK precision-level precision operations through flight marking, ensuring that the edges of the fields are not missed or re-sprayed, which is efficient and convenient.

At the event, the DJI Agricultural Sales Team selected two corn fields of the same size, one for the aerial spraying test field and the other for the control field, to compare yields. The test field was sprayed twice, at the flaring stage and the tasseling stage; the control field was sprayed once at the beginning and no further management was done, in accordance with farmers' past habits. Finally, the yield and quality differences were compared by sampling and yield measurement.

After weighing, the sample weight of the control plot was 6.93 kg, with an estimated yield of 1083.8 kg per mu; the sample weight of the test plot was 9.03 kg, with an estimated yield of 1211 kg per mu, a theoretical yield increase of 127.2 kg per mu compared with the control plot. Practice has proved that drone spraying of corn in the middle and late stages can increase corn production by more than 11.7%, effectively ensuring the timely prevention and control of pests and diseases, and thus ensuring increased corn production and income.

Promote high-quality grain projects and safeguard food security

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the corn planting area in 2023 is 44,218.90 thousand hectares, accounting for about 37% of the grain crop planting area. Among all cereals, it is the crop with the largest planting area. With the strengthening of the economic value of corn and policy guidance, China's corn industry is gradually playing an increasingly important role in the world.

In April 2024, the State Council officially issued the "Action Plan for Improving the Production Capacity of 100 Billion Jin of Grain (2024-2030)", which pointed out that the focus of capacity improvement is on corn and soybeans, emphasizing that "corn focuses on integrated matching and focusing on yield". At the same time, it insists on relying on science and technology, integrated matching, and promoting the combination of good fields and good systems, good varieties and good methods, and the integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy.

In recent years, the country has introduced a number of policies to increase grain production capacity. Based on the increase in corn yield, in addition to good fields and good varieties, the most important thing is the mid- and late-stage pest and disease control and foliar nutrient spraying technology, that is, "one spray, multiple promotions", which points the way to improve the mechanized management level of corn in the mid- and late-stage. With the continuous advancement of China's agricultural science and technology, drone technology has become an important tool for completing this modern agricultural management link, and has also made mid- and late-stage corn operations possible.

Zhang Yuan, global sales director of DJI Agriculture, said that from the full-process plant protection management of rice and wheat to the mid- and late-stage aerial defense application of corn, DJI Agriculture uses advanced drone technology to help farmers increase production and income on various crops, ensure food security, and promote the process of agricultural modernization. After more than ten years of hard work, DJI agricultural drones cover more than 100 countries and regions around the world, with a total of more than 300 crops, helping global agriculture solve operational problems. In the future, we will continue to gain insight into user pain points, make agriculture easier, and make life better.