Drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles have started appearing in the agricultural sector.
Drones have recently become necessary items for filming movies, soap operas and documentaries, as it makes it easy to capture a bird's-eye view of the action. Now, the scope of their use has expanded to include farming.

The Rural Development Administration (RDA) recently announced that it would utilize drones to monitor the use of manure and other green fertilizers in crops, a basis for the production of high-quality rice.


This is the first time that drone use has been supported by the RDA for rice production, and the program is being rolled out in Seocheon-gun County in Chungcheongnam-do (South Chungcheong Province).

The rice cultivation complex in Seocheon consists of 27 farms and covers 946 hectares. Winter vetch, or Vicia villosa, a nitrogen-fixing legume, is cultivated here in many fields to protect the soil, becoming one of the nation's largest producers of the forage crop.

There are two types of drones monitoring the fields. The fixed-wing craft captures the overall picture from a distance, while the craft with rotating wings films detailed images of the crops. The two drones are operated and supported by a research team at the National Academy of Agricultural Science and by the Department of Biosystems at Seoul National University, respectively.


The drones monitored the basic condition and the hydration status of the winter vetch on April 10 and May 4. The RDA plans to check the area again on May 14 to get an idea of how many nutrients the farmers will require this season.

A representative of Seocheon-gun County said, "The aerial footage filmed by the drones allows us to estimate the current condition of the winter vetch and to accurately calculate the amount of its production. This will help lead to the production of high-quality rice."

By Lee Seung-ah
Photos: the RDA
Korea.net Staff Writer
slee27@korea.kr