Our Joint Initiative: Focus on Safe Aerial Plant Protection, Contributing Industrial Strength to Global Agriculture!

In recent years, with the rapid development of digital agriculture, drones have been playing a key role in farmland big data collection and pest monitoring. To address agricultural labor shortages and improve planting efficiency, aerial plant protection has become an indispensable part of farmland pest management. By the end of 2020, China’s agricultural drone inventory exceeded 110,000 units, with annual aerial protection coverage reaching 1 billion mu (approximately 66.7 million hectares).

However, as the inventory and application scenarios of agricultural drones expand, with many new pilots joining the industry, the entire sector faces occasional incidents of pesticide damage, non-compliant flights, and safety accidents. These incidents have drawn public and farmer attention, making industry pioneers increasingly aware that while the aerial plant protection industry has broad prospects, “safety” should become the cornerstone of industrial development. Preparing for “aerial plant protection safety” topics in advance should become a consensus across the entire industry and a responsibility and commitment that the whole industry must shoulder together.

On April 28, 2021, World Day for Safety and Health at Work, 30 related institutions including Skyelectronic Intelligent, China Agricultural University’s Research Center for Pesticide Equipment and Application Technology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences’ Institute of Environment and Plant Protection, Shanxi Agricultural University, South China Agricultural University, Nanjing Agricultural University, National Aviation Plant Protection Technology Innovation Alliance, National Agricultural Machinery Standardization Technical Committee, National Agricultural Intelligent Equipment Engineering Technology Research Center, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ Institute of Plant Protection, China Pesticide Industry Association, National Information Agriculture Engineering Technology Center, Agricultural Aviation Alliance, Nanjing Agricultural University’s Smart Agriculture Research Institute, China Agricultural Mechanization Association, Global Times Drones, Southern+, Agricultural Machinery, Syngenta Group China, Corteva, Bayer, BASF, FMC China, DJI Agriculture, Biaopu Agriculture, Hanhe Aviation, Haisen Plant Protection, Jimo Robot, Topxgun Robotics, Tianying Brothers, and other renowned organizations jointly issued the “Aerial Plant Protection Safety Initiative” to the global aerial plant protection industry.

Participating organizations stated that the industry has a responsibility to ensure pilot operational safety and sustainable development of the natural environment. Moving forward, initiative members will promote safety science knowledge to global pilots and related institutions through multiple channels while providing safety-related training and certification assessments.

Safety Should Become the Cornerstone of Aerial Plant Protection

With the popularization of agricultural drones, aerial plant protection has become a key element in agricultural production. Aerial plant protection safety not only concerns industrial development but also relates to sustainable agricultural development and ecological environment safety.

April 28 is World Day for Safety and Health at Work. The United Nations established this commemorative day to promote global prevention of occupational accidents and diseases, encourage international community attention to such issues, foster and establish a culture of safety and health, and help reduce work-related injuries.

In April 2019, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security officially recognized drone pilots as a profession. Aerial plant protection safety has thus become an important component of occupational safety.

The 25 organizations hope to use this global safety commemorative day to launch a joint initiative, popularize the importance of safe operations across the entire industry, guide all practitioners’ attention to safety, jointly enhance the industry’s public image, and contribute industrial strength to global agricultural development, environmental sustainability, and ecological environment safety.

Joint Initiative Enterprises in Action

We all have a responsibility to prevent work-related injuries. Each enterprise and organization has a responsibility to ensure safe and healthy working environments. Aerial plant protection pilots also have a responsibility to work safely in the workplace, protect themselves, not endanger others, understand their rights, and participate in implementing various preventive measures.

In 2021, the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center issued the “Notice on Organizing Public Welfare Training for Scientific and Safe Pesticide Use for 100 Counties and Ten Thousand New Professional Farmers and Aerial Plant Protection Drone Pilots.” Under the guidance of this notice, Skyelectronic Intelligent will organize public welfare training using a combination of online and offline methods.

Hangzhou Skyelectronic Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-end equipment supplier covering complete plant protection drone solutions, flight control systems, RTK high-precision navigation systems, intelligent spraying systems, agricultural IoT, and green prevention and control systems.

Skyelectronic Intelligent adheres to innovation as its core development principle and has been recognized as a national high-tech enterprise; it has achieved multiple international and domestic pioneering technologies and submitted over a hundred patent applications. Current main products include plant protection drones A22, Q10, A6, AG3 Pro flight controller, pest monitoring systems, etc. Widely applied in various scenarios such as tall crops, paddy fields, drylands, hills, and forests, they can achieve manual, semi-automatic, and fully automatic autonomous flight operations, real-time/long-term pest monitoring, variable flight spraying, integrated reconnaissance and strike, and multiple operation modes, providing globally competitive customized plant protection solutions for customers worldwide.

Skyelectronic Intelligent has a global presence, adhering to the philosophy of “making plant protection simpler, more efficient, and safer,” providing customers with advanced, fast, flexible technical support, and quality service.