UAV, a "cool" cutting-edge technology, is in hand with agriculture, and the number of farmers using UAVs is steadily increasing. UAVs can be used in soil analysis, targeted application of fertilizer agriculture, storm tracking, safety monitoring, pollution control, air monitoring and other fields. In the future, the application potential of UAV in the agricultural field is very great.

"The future of UAV is in agriculture". Someone prophesied so. Indeed, when people try to use UAVs for aerial photography, logistics and entertainment in cities, they find that they will be restricted by airspace control, public security and other aspects. In the vast field, UAVs have been widely used.

In fact, the penetration rate of agricultural UAVs in Britain has reached 18%, and is changing the way farmers grow crops and raise livestock. In China, with the rapid improvement of UAV technology, agricultural UAVs are also being used to collect real-time land information such as crop health, water application and soil analysis, helping farmers better manage crops and achieve "precision agriculture".

At present, one of the most widely used agricultural UAVs is pesticide spraying. Take the cotton field as an example. To realize mechanical cotton picking, it is necessary to spray defoliant. The cost of using manual methods is high. Tractors driving into cotton fields will crush cotton, resulting in reduced production. The use of drone spraying can not only save manpower and reduce costs, but also achieve real-time, uniform and accurate spraying, minimizing the amount of groundwater infiltration. Now, some domestic UAV enterprises have been operating in farmland in Xinjiang and other places, and are welcomed by farmers.

More in-depth involvement of UAVs in the agricultural field will also affect the whole agricultural industry chain and promote the agricultural technology revolution. It is understood that behind the agricultural plant protection UAV is at least a trillion level agricultural machinery and pesticide market, and the emergence of UAVs may promote related industries to improve service standards. Moreover, the application of "UAV+sensor+big data" in the agricultural field can outline a multi-level and all-round "agricultural map": soil information, crop information, climate information, and even farmers' information will be summarized, so as to improve agricultural production efficiency.

In the information age of agriculture, farmers may be able to command UAVs parked in vegetable greenhouses to load, take off, spread medicine and return by themselves as long as they use the remote control. But at the same time, experts also remind that only enterprises that have really been to the field can design products that are effective, easy to use and acceptable to farmers. For example, what if there are many mosquitoes in the farmland in summer, which will affect the flight of UAVs? How to solve the problem of corrosion resistance of UAV and make it "solid and durable"? How can older farmers be taught to use scientific and technological products when they are "afraid" of them? This requires relevant enterprises to start from the reality of agriculture and innovate on the ridge.

This year's No. 1 central document mentioned again "smart agriculture", and emphasized strengthening innovation driven development, implementing key agricultural core technology tackling actions, and cultivating a number of agricultural strategic scientific and technological innovation forces. It is believed that with the arrival of the information age, the application of new technologies will bring more power to change the times.