With a 43% cost reduction, the P100 Pro adds a new trick to the dragon fruit harvest

Walking on the country roads of Changjiang, Hainan, there is a sweet fragrance wafting everywhere in the air. Looking up, the rows of neat branches in the field are full of red dragon fruits. The red heart dragon fruit here is thick and juicy, sweet and refreshing, not only has a beautiful skin, but also is rich in anthocyanins and rich trace elements required by the human body, so it is very popular in the market. In order to grow such high-quality dragon fruit, in addition to photosynthesis, it is also inseparable from the blessing of high technology.

Labor costs in the millions

The cost account behind the dragon fruit economy

Hainan Island belongs to the tropical monsoon climate, with abundant sunshine, abundant heat and abundant rainfall, known as the "natural greenhouse", which makes it form a very characteristic tropical agriculture. Changjiang Li Autonomous County, located in the northwest of Hainan, has benefited from such unique natural conditions and has become one of the main producing areas of high-quality dragon fruit in China. The dragon fruit here can bloom and hang fruit 12-15 times a year normally, and the yield per mu is between 3000-5000 catties.

In order to improve the yield and quality of dragon fruit, orchard owners usually install a large number of lamps in their orchards to supplement the light and temperature at night. Dragon fruit, which is so cared for, can bloom and hang fruit 3-4 times a year, and the yield per mu can reach 8,000-10,000 catties, which is sold at 4 yuan/catty, and the output value per mu can reach 32,000-40,000 yuan. As a result, dragon fruit has become a veritable "fruit of prosperity" for local farmers.

The high yield of dragon fruit is also inseparable from fine plant protection management. First of all, in order for dragon fruit to bloom and bear fruit for a long time, the soil must be continuously supplied with nutrients. At the same time, the high temperature and high humidity environment in Hainan is also very easy for dragon fruit plants to breed canker, soft rot and other bacteria. Once infected with these germs, it is easy to not only cause the death of the whole plant, but also spread to other plants. In order to maintain the nutrient supply of dragon fruit and prevent the occurrence of germs, the orchard must carry out plant protection once a week.

Under the traditional crop protection management model, orchard owners often choose to hire more workers to meet such a high frequency of crop protection needs. According to relevant reports, about 150 workers are needed for the planting and management of 1,500 acres of dragon fruit, and the annual labor cost is 7.2 million yuan according to 48,000 yuan per person per year. And with the acceleration of urbanization and the aging of the rural population, workers are becoming more expensive and difficult to find. How to solve the problem of difficult and expensive people has become a major problem for many orchards to reduce costs and increase efficiency. It wasn't until the advent of unmanned agricultural aircraft that the problem was solved.

In the early years, XAG P30 agricultural unmanned aircraft has been the first to be applied in dragon fruit plant protection

The P100 Pro flies into the dragon fruit orchard

Save 43.7% of plant protection labor costs

In fact, as early as 2017, agricultural unmanned aircraft have been applied to fruit tree flight defense. However, due to the limitation of load and flow, its operation efficiency is not very ideal, so many pilots and orchard owners choose to wait and see. With the introduction of large-load and large-flow agricultural unmanned aircraft, the flight protection of fruit trees has been gradually accepted.

"It is precisely because of XAG's 50 kg large load and maximum spraying flow of 22 liters per minute that the company has replaced all unmanned aircraft with P100 Pro this year." Wang Xiaopu, a local pilot in Changjiang, said.

Wang Xiaopu, who was assigned two XAG P100 Pros from the company, is responsible for the plant protection operation of a 1,500-acre dragon fruit base. He said: "The amount of dragon fruit flying plant protection per mu should reach at least 10 liters, so as to ensure the full coverage of the spraying solution. The large load and large flow rate of the P100 Pro not only ensure the efficiency of spraying, but also bring better spraying and penetration effects. ”

Because the P100 Pro can be controlled and flown in one go, Wang Xiaopu can work 400-500 acres a day, 1500 acres of dragon fruit base, and only need 4 days to complete a plant protection spraying.

"It's much faster than manual work, a P100 Pro can replace about 20 workers, and the spraying effect is more accurate and even, which not only saves the cost of agricultural materials, but also greatly reduces the occurrence of drug spots. The quality of the dragon fruit is higher and the owner is very satisfied. Wang Xiaopu said. According to the labor cost of 200 yuan/day and the price of flight defense is 12 yuan/mu, the traditional artificial plant protection cost needs 32,000 yuan, while the flight defense plant protection only needs 18,000 yuan, which is equivalent to saving about 43.7% of the labor cost.

XAG agricultu ral unmanned aircraft can also operate at night, and the effect is better

With the promotion and application of agricultural unmanned aerial vehicles in the local area, Hainan dragon fruit orchards have a more economical, efficient and environmentally friendly plant protection option. It can not only reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of orchard management, but also promote the high-quality development of Hainan's tropical characteristic agriculture.