Country's low-altitude economy aims sky high

Agricultural applications

The Chinese government has issued a number of policies to promote the use of modern agricultural machinery, boosting the application of drones in agriculture.

Farming drones have been widely used for spraying pesticides, sprinkling fertilizers and sowing seeds to help farmers improve efficiency and reduce costs, said Justin Gong, co-founder of XAG Co, one of China's largest agricultural drone manufacturers.

"Our ultimate goal is to create a smart agriculture ecosystem in which all the repetitive, tedious and dangerous jobs are assigned to drones and robots, allowing farmers to focus on decision-making with the aid of big data and artificial intelligence," Gong said.

The company has trained many young people who returned to the countryside and became drone pilots instead of directly selling the devices to farmers, he said, adding that digital technologies help accelerate the industrialization of the country's agricultural sector.

DJI has also devoted a great deal of attention to agricultural drones to help farmers improve the efficiency of sowing seeds and spraying fertilizers and pesticides, and increase the use of intelligent agricultural equipment.

As of October 2024, DJI's agricultural drones had been sold in more than 100 countries and regions, with accumulated sales reaching 400,000 units worldwide.

"With the expansion of application scenarios and innovation of service models, the scope of the low-altitude economy is becoming increasingly broad, ranging from agriculture and aerial photography to urban air mobility, logistics and delivery," said Yang Jincai, director of the Shenzhen Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Industry Association.

In China, the sector is still in its initial development stage, and there is a lack of effective supervision and emergency response mechanisms regarding low-altitude flight activities, presenting difficulties for urban low-altitude airspace management, he said.

Yang called for greater efforts to improve the design and planning of low-altitude airspace to make full use of airspace resources and meet the needs of various aviation activities, while strengthening supervision and management of flight activities.

Yang Ling, general manager of the intelligent equipment industry research center of CCID Consulting, said that as low-altitude flight activities continue to increase, more capital will be put into the construction of low-altitude infrastructure. "China's low-altitude economy is expected to maintain rapid growth," he said.

He said China's technological advancements and expertise in areas such as electric vehicles, batteries and rail transit provide strong technical support for the research and development of drones.