In the eastern part of Yuli County, Xinjiang province, it takes about two hours to drive through the deserted Gobi Desert and reach an endless sea of cotton.This is the han brothers' cotton field.
Han Guang, 43, has been growing cotton for more than 20 years since he graduated from high school.Han Hui, who graduated from China University of Political Science and Law in 2003, responded to his brother's call to grow cotton in Yuli County.The two brothers planted a total of 4,000 mu of cotton in Yuli County, of which the younger brother accounted for 1,500 mu.
Every year September - October, Xinjiang cotton into the picking season.In order for cotton to be uniformly harvested, cotton farmers spray defoliants on cotton.This is a biological adjustment agent, it can make cotton in the same time period of flocculation, mature, leaves, convenient machine for unified harvesting.
Unlike three years ago, defoliating agents are no longer sprayed by hand or tractors, but by drones, which have become standard for cotton farmers in Xinjiang.
How popular are drones in Xinjiang?According to Jifei Technology, the largest uav plant protection service provider in Xinjiang, the number of uav operations in Xinjiang in 2018 was 6.7 million mu, and the cotton planting area in Xinjiang was more than 30 million mu.That is to say, every 4-5 pieces of cotton clothes made from Xinjiang, there are 1 piece of cotton material is sprayed with drones.
Based on this, this year, Jiafei technology launched an unprecedented national agricultural UAV joint spraying operation in rural Areas of Xinjiang -- "wing" activity of autumn harvest.According to statistics, since late August, there have been nearly 3,000 extreme flying plant protection drones, more than 1,500 pilots, more than 1,000 flying defense teams from all over the country to Xinjiang, combined with more than 1,500 local drones in Xinjiang, for cotton spraying defoliant.
Founded in 2007, Jiafei technology is a world leading agricultural technology company, UAV r&d manufacturer and agricultural automation equipment operator, mainly engaged in the r&d and promotion of intelligent agricultural technology.According to the statistics of Jiafei Technology, as of September 21, 2019, the global cumulative operating area of Jiafei plant protection UAV has exceeded 310 million mu, saving 4.29 million tons of agricultural spraying water and reducing the abuse of 18,600 tons of pesticides and fertilizers.
Autumn harvest "wings" : Change is happening
Compared with the paper's first visit to Yuli county three years ago, the use of drones for plant protection operations has become commonplace in Xinjiang, where technology is quietly transforming the land.
For the Han brothers, drones have changed their cotton business.This year, han Hui and his brother did not book an operation team outside Xinjiang. Instead, they bought two Jiffy drones to manage their 4,000-mu cotton field.
Cotton growth to play 8-10 drugs, including chemical control agents, leaf fertilizer, insecticide, defoliating agent and so on, Hanhui planted 1,500 mu, the cost of pesticides a year needs about 80,000 yuan.According to Han Hui, this year's use of drone precision application technology to manage cotton fields has greatly increased the utilization rate of medicine and fertilizer, the cost of medicine is only 38,000 yuan.
From high-quality variety selection, to fine cotton management, and then to efficient and accurate defoliation and harvesting, the cotton field managed by Han Hui Brothers is expected to yield 450-500kg per mu this year, fully 50-100kg higher than the local average yield per mu.

Three years ago, all this would have been unthinkable.At the time, drones were not well received by local farmers, some of whom were skeptical and regarded them as a fad toy.The plant protection staff of JIFai technology needs to explain the flying principle and the advantages of the drone to farmers in the field;In some cases, farmers even need to be assured of the effectiveness of the operation before they are willing to use drones to spray their fields.Now, many farmers are not only willing to buy their own drones, but also want Geofitech's technicians to be the first to test the new technology on their fields.

Now more and more farmers are buying drones voluntarily

Three years ago, most people were born in the 1980s and 1990s, but now, more people in their 40s and 50s, like Han's brothers, are starting to use drones.

Changes have also taken place in the entire cotton industry chain.At a local agricultural supplies store, thepaper.cn reporters noticed that as drone medicine is becoming more and more popular in Xinjiang, pesticide boxes used to have pictures of tractors on them to show that pesticides are suitable for tractor operation. Now, the pictures on pesticide boxes have been replaced with pictures of flying drones.
It's cool to be a farmer
On the outskirts of Yuli County, the Paper also met farmer Zhang Lin, who owns 5,000 mu of cotton.This year, Zhang bought his own P30 drone, which is operated by his family's regular workers.In Xinjiang, large farmers often employ one or two long-term workers, usually older, to manage their fields.

More and more people in their 40s and 50s are starting to operate drones in Xinjiang
Before drones became widespread, Zhang needed to book a tractor to spray in advance during the cotton picking season.But when tractors enter cotton fields, they often cause a lot of damage to the cotton, and pesticides are unfriendly, not to mention costly.Take 1000 acres of cotton field as an example, if the use of tractor to spray defoliant, back and forth at least 3 trips, a trip down will crush about 1 acres of cotton, a total of 6 trips of locomotives, will cause 5-6 acres of cotton loss, to 400 acres of cotton field output, 8 yuan per kilogram price calculation,The loss caused by defoliating agent sprayed by tractors is about 16,000-19,200 yuan.In addition, factors such as the accuracy of application, operational efficiency and weather greatly affect the year-round harvest of cotton farmers.
In the past, one of the reasons farmers have rejected drones is that they are difficult to operate and require high altitude and precision for medicine use.It's not realistic to have older workers with no experience running it.In view of this, Jifei technology on the uav technology upgrade.Now, with a back clip and a mobile phone, even people with zero previous drone experience can get started in a heartbeat.

Now, with a back clip and a mobile phone, even people with zero previous drone experience can get started in a heartbeat."Jefi has designed the operating system to be very simple, as long as you can send wechat red packets, you will operate the drone."Zhang Lin told thepaper.cn.
In Mian Tian, the paper noticed that long workers operating drones can listen to music while wearing headphones and operate them at the same time.More happy is that these long workers said goodbye to the past under the sun into the cotton field spraying work, now they can take a small bench, or stretch hammock, under the shade of a tree, with two strokes of mobile phone, can complete the operation of thousands of acres of farmland.

An elderly farmer is flying a drone

Technology has made it cool to be a farmer, not just a drudgery.
Wisdom agriculture
In Xinjiang, the use of drones to provide plant protection services is only part of the problem. For Jiafei, what it wants to do more is to use technology to digitize agriculture and make it smarter.One of the things that must be done before drones can be used for plant protection is mapping the fields.Three years ago, if you went to Xinjiang, you would see many people on duty carrying RTK devices, walking in the fields, measuring the land with their feet.This year, after upgrading the technology, The company launched the "Geek Warrior" drone, which can be directly used for mapping.While improving efficiency, Jiefei has also digitized most of the farmland in Yuli County through technological iterations.

Most farmland in Yuli County, Xinjiang has been digitized

"Agricultural drones are not just a medicine tool, they are the key to smart agriculture."Peng Bin, founder of Jifei Technology, said in an interview with thepaper.cn.
For drones to fly safely and efficiently, they need to be mapped with greater accuracy, forecast more accurate weather, provide faster and more stable communications networks, and develop "masters" who can fly them.The company calls these "additional" jobs "public service facilities for drones."It is mainly divided into three parts, namely geographic information service, talent training mechanism and big data platform.
To put it simply, with the help of UAV, Jifei has built an information closed loop for agricultural plant protection.Drones are no longer a simple tool for plant protection, but a means to gather information.
When the farmland is digitized, the manager in the background gets a prescription map of the farmland and can clearly see the changes taking place on each farmland.It becomes clear what to plant this year, how to prevent pests and how crops are growing in the fields.In yuli county's agricultural stores, such a digital platform has begun to be used.Chen Jianglong, owner of an agricultural store in Weili County, told Thepaper.cn that they can also provide financial services directly to farmers by using the big data platform.Big data platforms are now clearly displaying previously invisible information, such as whether the agricultural materials that farmers need to buy are true and whether the money they borrow is really used in farmland.
"In my vision of the future of agriculture, the growing process of farmland is automated and robotic.I hope this will happen in the next 3-5 years."Because said his.