Farmers spending fortune to buy flying drones to spray pesticides

In recent years, the application of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) in spraying pesticides to prevent and treat rice diseases has been favored by many farmers in Tam Nong district (Dong Thap).

Mr. Dang Minh Vuong in Phu Cuong commune, Tam Nong district, with 30 hectares of rice, is very satisfied when he hired a company to deploy drones to spray pesticides on his field. Mr. Vuong said: "Ever since I have this company's spraying drones, farmers have been very excited. Because the service cost is cheap while the spray is faster than employing someone to spray it. Spraying by flying drones does not require farmers to wade into the fields, trample on rice…”.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong in Tan Loi hamlet, Tan Cong Sinh commune (Tam Nong district) cultivates 40 hectares of rice fields, he has recently sown the summer-autumn rice crop in 2022. This is the 6th crop he has applied flying drones in spraying pesticides for prevention and control of rice pests. Initially when he uses a service drone with only 10 liters capacity to spray, now the drone has increased its capacity to 20 liters and able to carry a load of 52kg, it only has to spray from 7 am to about 12 noon to finish 400 workloads of rice fields.

This flying drone is both fast and cheap, costing only from 130,000 to 160,000 VND/time to spray per hectare, saving up to 6 million VND/ha/crop. Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong shared: “In the past, I had 3 acres of fields, spraying pesticides by hand took a lot of time and effort. Now, thanks to this flying drone, my work is done easily. I do a lot of farming, but I can't spray by hands all of my fields. Besides, now there is a shortage of labor to hire."

According to a technical staff working for a pesticide spraying service provider, one drone can spray 60ha/day, each flight it sprays 10,000m2 of rice fields, taking 10 minutes, 15 times faster than traditional spraying. Spraying pesticides in this method does not trample the rice during the spraying process, so it limits the impact on workers' health because they do not have to be in direct contact with chemicals. 

Seeing the convenience of flying drones in spraying pesticides, many farmers in Tam Nong district have boldly invested millions of dong, even billions in some cases, to acquire flying drones to spray pesticides for their own rice fields as well as to do services.

In 2020, Mr. Nguyen Van Hong in hamlet 5, Hoa Binh commune, Tam Nong district invested nearly 600 million VND to buy flying drones to spray pesticides for 40ha of rice fields. After that, Mr. Hong invested over half a billion dong to acquire another spraying drone that both worked in the fields and provided services for surrounding rice field owners.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hong did not hesitate to say: "In general, investing in flying drones worth nearly 600 million VND is a large amount of money, but after only one year applying in rice fields, the farmers will earn his capital back. The flying drone is still functional, excluding the maintenance costs to repair, I can still fly my drone normally. In the near future, I plan to invest in buying another fertilizer sprayer, spraying rice seeds for convenience, because labor is low, I work on my own rice fields, and if effective, I will provide services for neighboring people…”.

According to Tam Nong district Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the entire district currently has 65,000 hectares of cultivated rice land annually. The application of flying drones in spraying pesticides helps farmers prevent direct contact with the drug, reduce the number of spraying times; reduce production costs…

Mr. Luu Van Tien, Deputy Head of Tam Nong district Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will continue to deploy the model of spraying pesticides using flying drones to continue to evaluate its effectiveness, evaluate the technical process of using equipment in safely and effectively spraying pesticides for rice. In addition, a pilot model of using drones will be deployed for sowing and spraying fertilizers, in combination with pesticides to help further reduce costs in rice production.