Drone king turns to farming

China dr one-maker DJ I is betting on flying machines that shoot pesticide to fend off growing competition in the global remote- controlled aircraft market.

The world leader in the civilian drones sector is switching its focus from leisure photography to more professional uses for its unmanned aerial vehicles, and it sees agriculture as the future for the burgeoning industry.

DJI’s campus lies within the High Tech Park of the southern city of Shenzhen, China’s Silicon Valley, where visitors are treated to a showroom featuring an array of drones.

Half the space of the showroom is dedicated to the recreational machines like the Phantom series, while the other half shows off “enterprise” drones for agriculture, public safety or filmmaking.

Propelled by rotors, the tiny crop dusting aircraft can carry a liquid payload of 15 kilograms to spray fields.

Piloted from a distance, one drone can cover the same surface as around 30 people in the same amount of time and it does the job more efficiently, said Jiang Sanchun, manager of a small company that operates pesticide drones for farmers in China.

“Within five years, we went from drones that only took photos to machines specialized in first aid or agriculture ,” DJ I vice president Paul Xu told AFP at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen.

DJI was founded in 2006 in an apartment in Shenzhen by Frank Wang, a young graduate who has a passion for model planes.

The company now makes almost two- thirds of the world’s civilian drones, according to an estimate by Frost & Sullivan, a market research company. Its overall revenues reached $ 1.5 billion last year.

Xu boasted that DJI “created a new market” in 2013 when it launched its Phantom drone with high-definition cameras.

Some 75 percent of the company’s drones are sold abroad, mostly in the US and Europe, and they are popular among people flying the crafts for fun or to take aerial photos.

With competition on the rise, DJI is looking for new markets. In late 2015, it launched Agras MG- 1, an octocopter, or eightrotor drone, which can carry pesticide or fertilizer.

“A drone can monitor energy networks in hard to reach areas or support public security missions,” Xu said.

Worldwide drone sales increased by 60 percent last year, according to the Gartner consulting company. Sales are expected to reach $ 6 billion this year and nearly double to 11.2 billion by 2020.

Drones for commercial uses represent 6 percent of the market, but a whopping 60 percent of revenue.