UTILIZATION OF DRONES IN FARMING

[Anchor Lead]

Rural areas are short-handed these days due to their residents' aging and population decline. Drones have emerged as versatile tools in various aspects of farming.

[Pkg]

A drone flies about 2-3 meters above a rice paddy. It sprinkles tiny rice seeds. Instead of planting rice seedlings grown in advance, rice seeds are sown directly into soil. It only takes 5-6 minutes to sow seeds directly in a 5,000 sq. m. field, one seventh of the time needed to plant seedlings using conventional methods. It takes a month to install seedbeds and grow seedlings. But this high-tech method helps cut labor and farming costs by over 80 percent per hectare. Drones are already being used to sprinkle pesticides and fertilizers. Once the sowing process is also performed by drones, almost the entire rice cultivation process will be performed using the technology.

[Soundbite] Cho Jae-ho(Rural Development Administration) : "Labor shortages are expected to continue, and more drones will be needed. Our administration tries to create more pilot farms related to the direct sowing."

The use of drones now includes pest control and artificial pollination as well. Rural areas had no other choice but to resort to drones to solve labor shortages and population aging.

[Soundbite] Jeon Young-jin(Farmer) : "Drones will be essential in farming as long as their battery life is long enough."

[Soundbite] Lee Hak-un(Agricultural Development and Technology Center, Buyeo-gun County) : "We have verified it through tests. There is no reason to avoid drones as long as there are enough of them to be used in farming."

Drones are predicted to become indispensable in agriculture due to population aging and lack of workers.