The development of agriculture is crucial to people's livelihoods and social stability.

With the continuous release of agricultural demand in recent years, the persistent highlighting of various problems in agriculture has intensified the trend of traditional agricultural modernization transformation.

In order to further enhance national food security, China actively introduces cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things and 5G, promotes digital and intelligent development of agriculture, and the trend of smart agriculture is sweeping in.

In this process, as one of the important new agricultural equipment, drones have been widely favored and rapidly popularized. Drones are known for their simple operation, flexible application, and low cost, and can penetrate into various links in agriculture.

By replacing traditional labor, they can reduce production restrictions caused by labor force reduction and declining dividends. At the same time, drones can also improve operational efficiency through various technology integrations and save production costs.

For people, drones are mainly concerned with three aspects of agricultural applications.

Agricultural pest control. Agricultural pest control is the most important part of agriculture, divided into multiple links such as planting, watering, spraying, inspection, and harvesting, and is the main component of agricultural development.

The value of drones in agricultural pest control is self-evident. Currently, domestic agricultural drones are mainly used for pest control, which eliminates the need for young people to work manually.

Agricultural surveying and mapping. The development of smart agriculture depends on agricultural surveying and mapping.

Agricultural surveying and mapping can not only help farmers carry out agricultural production but also help rural governments with land rights confirmation and agricultural management.

In the past, agricultural surveying and mapping were usually done through manual measurement or remote sensing technology, but these methods are far less easy, convenient, precise, safe, and smart than using drones for surveying and mapping.

Rural logistics. The development of smart agriculture is not only about production and management but also sales. Due to factors such as terrain environment and technical funds limitations, road transport infrastructure in rural areas is backward, and logistics development is insufficient, so the sale of agricultural products always encounters obstacles.

Against this background, the rise and development of drone delivery can undoubtedly bring a huge upgrade to the rural logistics system.

The value of drones in promoting smart agriculture mainly lies in three aspects: agricultural production, management, and service. Through the significant support of agricultural pest control, agricultural surveying and mapping, and rural logistics, traditional agriculture can be comprehensively upgraded to intelligence.

It is precisely because of this that the application of drones in the field of agriculture has been widely favored by people. Prospects and challenges of drones As for the prospects of agricultural drones, it is not to be underestimated with the assistance of the above-mentioned three roles and values.

IDC once forecasted that the market size of agricultural drones used for plant protection in China would reach hundreds of billions by 2023. From hardware sales to pilot services to after-sales markets such as maintenance, fault responsibility, and leasing, the space for drones in the plant protection field is enormous.

At the same time, the application of drones in agricultural surveying and mapping and rural logistics is also becoming more and more popular and profound, which has continuously released the potential of agricultural drones and continued to grow.

However, from the current development situation, the development of agricultural drones still mainly focuses on the field of plant protection. The development in other areas is not mature enough, and the overall development still needs improvement.