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Japan seeks to harness drones for agriculture

The agriculture ministry has unveiled a plan to promote the spread of drones for agriculture to cope with the aging of farmers and shortages of successors of farms in the country.

In the plan announced Monday, the ministry set a goal to introduce agricultural drones for more than half of the land area planted with rice, wheat and soy across Japan by fiscal 2022, for promoting labor-saving and increasing productivity.

The ministry expects the drones to be utilized not only for spreading agricultural chemicals and fertilizers but also for analyzing the growth conditions of crops with cameras mounted on them.

The plan includes increasing the types of agricultural chemicals that can be sprayed with drones to 846, or about 1.3-fold the current total.

A public-private council consisted of officials of the ministry, drone makers and research institutions, as well as farmers, has been set up for sharing information related to agricultural drones.