Progress in Agricultural Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Applied in China and Prospects for Poland

Abstract

With the acceleration of the Belt and Road Initiative, Poland–China agricultural trade has increasingly strengthened, but there is little exchange or cooperation in agricultural machinery. China’s agricultural UAV industry has flourished over the past 7 years. In China, by using typical food crops and economic crops to control diseases and pests, agricultural drones can reduce the use of fertilizer, pesticides, and water, improve operational efficiency, open up new markets through the ‘sale + services’ mode, and reduce production costs and labor shortages. The spraying of agricultural UAVs and related pest-disease-defense services applied in China are also suitable for Poland’s decentralized, small-scale production modes. By learning from China’s development progress of precision-agriculture aviation, Poland can develop 5th-generation (5G) unmanned intelligent organic farms from traditional organic agriculture, use agricultural UAVs in the spraying of Plant Protection Products (PPPs), and carry out special protection or loss management on typical fruits. Furthermore, by building its own spraying system, aviation industry, and service team, Poland can realize resource optimization, technological empowerment, application expansion, and industrial innovation. Therefore, this paper focuses on the development experience of Chinese agricultural UAVs and discusses its enlightenment to the precision-agriculture aviation application of Poland.