China's agricultural aviation plant protection industry needs strong promotion for its development
China is a country where agricultural diseases, insect pests and weeds occur severely. With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, the capacity to absorb and take in rural labor has increased, which has also led to a massive transfer of rural labor to cities and towns, seasonal labor shortages in rural areas, and a sharp rise in labor costs. At the same time, rural land transfer is accelerating, and there are more and more family farms, new agricultural economic entities and large-scale growers, creating greater and greater demand for pest and disease control. China's traditional small knapsack sprayers can no longer meet current market demand, and large and medium-sized plant protection machinery and agricultural aviation plant protection, with their high operational efficiency, wide scope of application, water-saving and pesticide-saving environmental friendliness, and low labor requirements, have developed rapidly.
At the same time as development, some problems exist——
1) At present, aviation plant protection has shown certain advantages, but China's access system for aircraft is very strict, and China's airspace has not been opened up. Therefore, the use of agricultural aircraft, especially manned aircraft, must strictly follow China's relevant air traffic control regulations, which restricts the development of agricultural aviation in China.
2) The number of agricultural aircraft in China is obviously too small, and agricultural aviation plant protection accounts for a relatively small proportion of plant protection nationwide, which restricts the development of China's aviation plant protection technology. China's agricultural aircraft models are diverse and miscellaneous, supporting technologies are backward, and the construction of flight service infrastructure and support systems is backward. The operation, maintenance and upkeep costs of manned agricultural aircraft are relatively high, and there is a shortage of talent, which also restricts the development of agricultural aircraft in China.
3) Agricultural aviation plant protection application equipment and control technology are backward. Agricultural aviation plant protection application equipment and application technology are the key to efficient and high-quality aviation plant protection. Developed countries such as Europe, the United States and Japan have all invested large amounts of manpower, financial resources and material resources in related research and achieved relatively great results. China has fewer agricultural aircraft and more restrictions on takeoff, so related research is limited. Although drones are developing rapidly, they are basically developed from model aircraft, with simple assembly of aviation application equipment and control technology. Research on some of China's application equipment and application technologies (such as low-altitude low-volume aviation application technology, aviation anti-drift application technology, aviation precision application technology, and special formulation technology for aviation spraying, etc.) lags far behind that of developed countries in Europe and the United States, and cannot reach the precision and quality of advanced foreign equipment and application technologies.
Promoting the development of China's aviation plant protection should start from the following aspects——
1) Include it in agricultural machinery subsidies. The agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy has become a decisive factor affecting the agricultural machinery market. The strength of the subsidy policy's implementation and the quality of its execution directly affect market dynamics and industry development. At present, because aircraft prices and maintenance and use costs are high, the promotion of aviation plant protection is greatly limited. The progress of agricultural machinery subsidies for aircraft and aviation plant protection equipment that have passed quality testing and appraisal should be accelerated.
2) Operational subsidies for specialized prevention and control organizations. The main operators of drone operations are specialized prevention and control organizations, and the state should establish special subsidies to subsidize specialized prevention and control organizations according to the area of prevention and control.
3) Safety supervision. Attach importance to the safety of aviation plant protection operations, determine safety supervision institutions, and improve the legal and regulatory system for aviation plant protection access and operation. Agricultural machinery supervision staff should conduct qualification inspections of aircraft and aviation plant protection equipment participating in operations, regularly review the qualifications of training and study personnel and equipment operators, and provide safety education to personnel participating in operations and have them sign, so as to take preventive measures and ensure the smooth progress of aviation plant protection operations.
4) Standards development (quality standards, operational specifications, and effect evaluation specifications). Clarify the departments for product quality appraisal and supervision, formulate as early as possible technical standards for the design, production and manufacturing of China's agricultural plant protection drone products, and establish product quality testing standards and a quality management system; research and formulate management specifications and standards for agricultural plant protection drone flight operations, and a job training and qualification certification system for agricultural plant protection drone flight operation operators, so as to achieve employment with certification; research and formulate standards and specifications for the quality of drone aviation plant protection operations, prevention and control effect evaluation, and environmental risk assessment, and promote the high-quality, high-benefit, safe and controllable development of the drone aviation plant protection industry.
5) Technical training. Adopt methods such as centralized training, on-site operation, demonstration base observation, and distribution of technical materials to train operators, improve the operational skills and scientific management level of aviation plant protection equipment, and especially focus on guiding operators to combine aircraft operation with knowledge of application technology.
6) Technical support. The focus of basic research on spray technology for agricultural aviation plant protection drones should be strengthened: the correlation between the movement patterns of fine droplets during application and the meteorological factors inside and outside the crop canopy, efficient anti-drift spray technology, key technologies of flight control systems, and special formulations for drone aviation plant protection. A series of special light aircraft suitable for different regions and capable of meeting the prevention and control needs of different crops, diseases, insect pests and weeds, together with efficient aviation application systems combined with them, should achieve precision spraying and other agricultural aviation operations, and form a series of agricultural aviation plant protection sprayers for China.
7) Policy guarantees. China's territorial airspace has always been controlled by the Air Force, and low altitude has not yet been opened up to meet the requirements of agricultural aviation operations (only a very small number of areas are open). It is suggested that the state draw on international experience and open up and utilize low altitude as an important natural resource in the agricultural field: the first step can be to develop low altitude within 500 m, and in areas that have already been opened up, gradually develop from 500 m to 1000 m; in places where conditions are already mature, accelerate opening up and further tap the potential.
8) Accelerate industrial development. Strengthen the integration of industry, academia and research, encourage qualified enterprises and research institutes to cooperate in researching and developing advanced and applicable aviation plant protection equipment suited to China's national conditions, support the introduction, digestion and absorption of new efficient aviation plant protection equipment, enhance product development and manufacturing capabilities, and strengthen the protection of enterprise intellectual property rights. The government should establish special funds for the development of aviation plant protection, focusing on supporting enterprise technological innovation and industrial upgrading.