Guarding sugarcane gardens, and creating new jobs, DJI Agriculture is for the welfare of African farmers
Original Farming in Africa DJI Agriculture3/25
In early 2021, South Africa’s second drone flight permit was once again granted to DJI Agriculture. Today, DJI Agriculture is the only brand allowed by the South African government for plant protection operations. Its plant protection drones not only serve South Africa’s sugarcane, forest trees, corn and other crops, but the local team also increases employment opportunities and creates greater value through pilot training programs and community programs.
PACSys team trained for the people of Tanzania
From zero to one, breaking the deadlock
In 2016, DJI Agriculture entered the African market.
At that time, the South African government was completely opposed to the “plant protection unmanned aircraft”. It neither provided a path for legally compliant operations, nor did it have any agent suitable for drone spraying. The task of entering the game to break the ice is slowly underway.
Tim in a speech
Within three years, Tim , the head of the PACS y s team, led the team throughout South Africa to test on different crops to verify the effectiveness of flight defense. Experiments have shown that, whether it is corn, wheat, sugarcane, citrus, etc., DJI plant protection drones are effective. In terms of product reliability, multiple safety tests such as collisions and drops have also gradually eased the attitude of the South African government towards plant protection drones, and finally fully accepted it.
During the experiment, Tim also found that the fundamental need of local farmers is to improve the quality of their crops. Compared with large airplanes, small drones can achieve precise spraying, saving water and reducing medicines, which perfectly fits the concepts of green planting, medicine reduction and efficiency enhancement required by the South African government.
At present, the DJI Agriculture and Tim team, together with BASF, Syngenta and other pharmaceutical companies, continue to carry out experimental cooperation on different crops, and provide better solutions to improve farm efficiency and crop quality.
Benefits increased by 25%
Let the land maximize its value
South Africa is the world’s largest sugar producer, with 380,000 hectares of sugarcane planted, making it the third largest crop in South Africa. Limited by terrain and other factors, traditional sugarcane orchards mostly use large planes for plant protection operations.
Due to concerns about the drift of the chemical liquid affecting the growth of other crops, large aircraft generally only spray the middle area of the sugarcane field. As you can see in the comparison chart below, a large area around the sugarcane field is left blank (green band).
(The yellow area in the picture represents sprayed, green represents not sprayed)
In contrast, drone operations can achieve 100% coverage, effectively play the value of every inch of land, and bring 25% additional income to sugarcane farmers . Faced with pressures such as water shortages and insect pests, drone spraying can effectively ensure product quality and enhance sugarcane farmers’ bargaining power .
Tim said that the 25% increase in efficiency is only a conservative estimate.
Restricted by factors such as land, manpower, and management level, South Africa’s sugarcane orchards are mainly operated by large farmers, and there are still a large number of small sugarcane fields that have not been developed. The popularization of plant protection drone technology can not only effectively develop sugarcane fields that have not been cultivated , but also create new jobs in nearby communities and achieve greater social value .
Sugarcane plantation in operation
Cooperate with Agricultural Education and Training Bureau
Promote the development of modern agriculture
In addition to services and crops, the plant protection drone pilot project led by Tim has been in operation for nearly 4 years. In 2021, the South African plant protection drone training program passed the certification of the Agricultural Education and Training Agency (AgriSeta), and will focus more on serving agricultural practitioners in the future.
Pilot training
Currently, the pilot project is still in the stage of vigorous development. By granting scarce skills in the agricultural field and enhancing the professional level of the “new farmers”, DJI Agriculture and its partners send more highly-trained agricultural aviation experts to South Africa.