Propellers over the paddies as drones ease farming load
● The next-generation farmhand in Japan’s ageing rural heartland may be a drone.
For several months, developers and farmers in northeast Japan have been testing a new drone that can hover above paddy fields and perform backbreaking tasks in a fraction of the time it takes elderly farmers.
“This is unprecedented high technology,” said Isamu Sakakibara, a 69-year-old rice farmer in Tome, a region that has supplied rice to Tokyo since the 17th century.
Developers of the new agricultural drone say it offers hi-tech relief for rural communities facing a shortage of labour as young people leave for the cities.
The drone can apply pesticides and fertiliser to a rice field in about 15 minutes — a job that takes more than an hour by hand and requires farmers to lug around heavy tanks.
The Nile-T18 was developed by drone start-up Nileworks and recently tested in collaboration with the local farmers’ co-op and trading house Sumitomo.
In Tome, farmers are on average 68 years old and they may only have another four to five years of farming left, Sakakibara said.
“It’s a matter of whether the body breaks down first, or the tractor,” he said.
Compared to larger radio-controlled mini-helicopters that cost around ¥15m (about R1.9m) with spray equipment, the drone is smaller and cheaper, with a price tag of about ¥4m.
Nileworks is negotiating with authorities to allow operators to fly its drone without a licence. It can be controlled with an iPad and runs on mapping software that is simple to operate.
“Our ultimate goal is to lower rice farming costs to one-fourth of what it is now,” said Nileworks president Hiroshi Yanagishita.
The drone can quickly analyse a rice stalk and determine how much pesticide or fertiliser it needs, making it easier for farmers to judge their input needs and estimate the crop size.
Shota Chiba, a 29-year-old farmer in Tome, said technology could modernise farming and attract young people back to the land. — Reuters