Drones help Guizhou farmers reach fields tractors can't

(ECNS) — Farmers across Guizhou Province in southwest China are using drones this summer to spray crops, apply fertilizer and transport farm goods, helping bring mechanized agriculture to mountainous areas conventional equipment cannot reach.

In Tongren’s Yanhe County, drones are treating soybean and corn fields during the summer crop-care season. Elsewhere in the province, they have sprayed and fertilized hundreds of hectares of fruit and sorghum fields.

Drones are also carrying bamboo, agricultural supplies and fresh produce over steep slopes. Mountains and hills cover 92.5% of Guizhou, where scattered farmland and difficult transport have long limited agricultural production.

In April, a two-ton electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft carried freshly picked tea about 120 kilometers from Anshun to Guiyang in 37 minutes, showing how aerial transport could connect remote farms with urban logistics networks.

Guizhou is expanding drone trials in seeding, crop monitoring, spraying and cargo transport, extending the reach of agricultural machinery across its mountainous terrain.

(By Helen Mo, intern Yang Hongran)