Counting watermelons until he was furious, a finance PhD developed aerial inventory and calls on aerial photographers nationwide to help farmers

The drone slowly rises and patrols back and forth over the watermelon field, checking which plants have yellowed leaves, which leaves have curled, and which watermelons are small. Two drones, 20 minutes, and the inspection of seven jia of watermelon field is complete. Lu Chi-yeh, founder of Hualien Shoufeng Impression, and team member Chen Che-ming began developing "aerial image crop inventory technology" in May last year, using drones to photograph watermelon fields. Photo after photo is ultimately stitched into one large image and mounted on a geographic information system, making the condition of every watermelon clearly visible, "even the license plate of a car can be seen clearly."

Eight years ago, Lu Chi-yeh returned to Shoufeng, Hualien, because his father was in a car accident. "Coming back to the countryside, I saw population loss; there were no young people in the countryside." At the same time, he encountered a slump in sales of pomelo, and farmers had no sales channels. Therefore, Lu Chi-yeh used his own expertise in finance and the internet to found the "Shoufeng Impression" agricultural marketing online platform to help small farmers with marketing. Products include Shoufeng watermelons, eagle-hunted rice, chestnut sweet potatoes, and more.