Industrial Cluster: UAV Helps Yingjisha Cotton Field Management

At present, it is a critical period for cotton field management. In recent days, all villages and towns in Yingjisha County, Xinjiang, have used plant protection UAVs to carry out spraying operations, and have done a good job in field water and fertilizer, pest control and other management work. The introduction of UAVs has made cotton field management more efficient and accurate, and injected new momentum into the development of modern agriculture.

UAV pilot Dawu Tijiang Ablaiti and villagers add medicine to UAV (photographed by Azzaim)

On April 23, in the cotton field in the wasteland village of Yingyal Township, with the roar of a propeller, the UAV pilot Dawu Tijiang Ablaiti controlled the UAV carrying 50 liters of pesticide to fly into the air, skimmed the cotton field at low altitude, and sprayed pesticide evenly. In only 2 minutes, the spraying operation of one mu of cotton field was completed. It used to take a few days to complete the cotton field spraying work, but now it can be done in an hour and a half depending on unmanned aerial vehicles.

Dawudijiang Abdaiti, a villager in Kaligak Village, Setili Township, said: "Tractor spraying medicine is easy to damage seedlings, and the speed is also relatively slow. With fuel consumption and pesticides calculated, the cost is relatively high, and UAVs are also very convenient to save money and labor."

Compared with traditional plant protection equipment, the plant protection UAV adopts the directional and precise pesticide application mode, which has the advantages of precision, efficiency and safety, and can greatly improve the quality and yield of crops.

Osman Emati, a villager in the wasteland village of Yingyal Township, said: "My family has planted more than 400 mu of cotton. It is efficient, fast and convenient to use drones to shoot. As long as we manage well, we are confident of achieving a bumper cotton harvest this year."

UAV is operating (photographed by Azzaim)

With the maturity and popularization of plant protection UAV technology application, many villagers actively learn the control technology. After studying and obtaining the operation certificate in 2022, Dawuti Jiang Abulaiti will provide services for everyone with professional technology in every season of crop spraying.

Dawudijiang Abdaiti said: "UAVs can operate 400 mu of land a day, earning 3 yuan per mu, and more than 1000 yuan a day. Farmers can save time and labor, and we can fly to earn money."

This year, the cotton planting area of the wasteland village is more than 20000 mu. The "two committees" of the village always pay attention to the growth of cotton, timely solve the technical problems of field management, and ensure the high yield and income of cotton.

Tayer Abdullah, secretary of the village party branch, said that plant protection UAVs will be widely used in wheat, cotton and other crops, and modern agricultural technology will be used to insert "scientific and technological wings" for agricultural production.

Yingjisha County focuses on the development of smart agriculture and vigorously promotes scientific and technological planting methods such as mechanical sowing, UAV plant protection and mechanized harvesting. At present, more than 130 plant protection UAVs are widely used in agricultural production throughout the county, promoting the mechanization and intelligence of agriculture.

Shi Hu, director of the Agricultural and Rural Mechanization Development Center of Yingjisha County, said that he would focus on the agricultural industry planning, promote science and technology to strengthen agriculture, improve the level of agricultural science and technology, use UAVs for growth monitoring, yield estimation, pest control, etc., and enable production with science and technology to speed up rural revitalization and agricultural development.