DJI: Forges premium crop protection UAVs and creates benign eco-market with partners

Editor's Note: “On the 3rd September 2018, the UAV crop protection applications by DJI agricultural drone to crop land reached over 100 million Mu (6.67 million Ha) of cropland in 2018, which is a breakthrough in servicing of 100 million Mu (6.67 million Ha) of crop land by a single-brand product; up until July 2018, the domestic possessing capacity of DJI’s MG series agricultural drone exceeded 16,000 units,” said Chen Tao, the Marketing Director of DJI Agriculture Department China at an interview with AgroPages. These eye-catching performance has further enhanced DJI’s industry leader status, having attracted the attention of industry people to the great potentials of the hundred billion aerial crop protection market. Director Chen also briefed the general achievements of DJI over recent years, including the product upgrade process and the effort to build an eco-market for agricultural drone in cooperation with industry partners. 

Q1. Could you give a briefing of your achievements in UAV crop protection applications? With what companies DJI Agriculture has established strategic partnership and how is the cooperation going on now?

Up until July 2018, the domestic possessing capacity of DJI’s MG series reached over 16,000 units in total in China. According to third-party statistics, DJI stands at a leading position in respect to both market share and the sales volume of 2018.

On the 3rd September 2018, crop protection service by DJI agricultural drone reached accumulatively over 100 million Mu (6.67 million Ha) of crop land. China has 2.025 billion Mu（134.8 million Ha） of cultivated land, DJI, as a single-brand product, has made the breakthrough in servicing of 100 million Mu (6.67 million Ha) of crop land. This indicates the widespread recognition and acceptance of DJI products all over China, which also stands for a new beginning of the Chinese aerial crop protection development.

In order to continue our optimization of aerial crop protection service, in this year DJI has entered into cooperation with prime research institutions and enterprises. In the first half of 2018, DJI executed agreements with Syngenta, DowDuPont and BASF to release aerial crop protection-dedicated products and application standard to continuously improve the effectiveness and efficiency of pesticide applications by agricultural drone.

Furthermore, DJI has signed agreements with China Agricultural University, South China Agricultural University and the Institute of Plant Protection of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. A united lab on research of agricultural drone has been set up to engage researches of continued optimization of agricultural drone in the future.

Q2. What products have been launched by DJI Agriculture so far and how is the effect of pesticide application?

Since 2009, DJI started research of aerial crop protection, supported by the gathered earliest aerial crop protection professionals, which facilitated DJI to be China’s aerial crop protection pioneer. In December 2015, DJI’s first agricultural drone MG-1 was released to market. After 2-year optimization and upgrading, DJI launched its MG-1P in December 2017. This product improves working efficiency greatly, and could handle applications of 90 Mu (6.0 Ha) of crop land with 1 hour, which has a 30% higher efficiency than the earlier product of MG-1. Furthermore, DJI’s MG-1P has the useful functions of night operation, landform-adjusted flying and several drones being controlled by 1 controller, which effectively increases the effect of pesticide applications.

In February 2018, DJI conducted a very challenging trial in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, China, where a 4-people team did cycle operations and calculated the efficiency of operation. During the trial, the work team used DJI’s software PC GS PRO to operate 4 MG-1P drones. It took only 3 hours and 40 minutes to complete spraying of 1,000 Mu (66.6 Ha) of crop land, starting from operation preparation till end of operation.

Q3. What do you think of the current situation of UAV crop protection in China and what are the existing problems? What is the future development planning of DJI Agriculture?

According to statistics, the proportion of China’s cultivated land using aerial agricultural technologies is only 1.7%, which means that there is a large potential market for the industry. This also indicates that the market is not established yet, meaning that the development of the industry may still last long. Agriculture is a market of big investment and long period of development with slow return of investment.

Compared to manual operation, agricultural drone application is of high efficiency and safety, but it is still a long way to go to until an ecological market is established. The popularity of aerial crop protection-related knowledge, buildup of sales and service network and the setup of crop protection business mode all require large investment and long-term operation.

After 2-year in-depth market exploration, DJI could come up with a business objective of “no pursuit for immediate profit, but to help crop protection service providers to create benign cycle of business mode towards a sound ecological environment.”

Since 2018, the availability of governable subsidy and the promotion of unified crop protection practicing system have brought a positive impact to the development of agricultural drone applications. DJI has played an active role in promotion of agricultural drone applications in China, actions taken by DJI include submission of information to assist crop protection service providers in applying for subsidy, assistance in organization of crop protection resources in support of the implementation of unified crop protection practicing system. However, rapid development of agricultural drone will still rely on the commercial success of crop protection service. When crop protection service comes to the attention of venture capital, a milestone of agricultural drone will really begin.

On the other side, agricultural drone still stays in its rapid technical upgrading stage, where single unit efficiency is being raised constantly. While all higher efficient tools are bringing higher earnings to crop protection service providers and farmers, the total demand for agricultural drone naturally becomes less. It is still to be watched closely and explored as how this industry will develop in the future.

DJI is very willing to be a “step stone” for all industries and is open to collaborations with partners that wish to use DJI’s technologies to realize your sweet dreams.

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