Chungnam Utilizes 'Autonomous Driving and Drones' in Rice Farming... Expected to Reduce Labor and Costs

Chungnam Provincial Agricultural Research and Extension Services demonstrated early-maturing rice transplanting technology using an autonomous rice transplanter on the 30th of last month at the Dangjin Haenaru Rice Cooperative Joint Business Corporation. Yang Seung-jo, Governor of Chungnam Province, who attended the demonstration event, personally boarded the autonomous rice transplanter to experience the transplanting process. Provided by Chungnam Province

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province is promoting the use of autonomous driving and drones in rice farming. The goal is to address labor shortages and achieve cost reduction effects.

The Chungnam Agricultural Research and Extension Services recently demonstrated early-maturing rice transplanting technology using autonomous driving rice transplanters at the Dangjin Haenaru Rice Cooperative Joint Business Corporation.

Autonomous driving transplanting is a new technology where the transplanter recognizes terrain and environmental conditions on its own and performs transplanting without operator control.

This allows one worker to simultaneously carry out transplanting and seedling tray transportation, unlike the previous method where two workers?a transplanter operator and a seedling tray carrier?had to work as a team.

The Agricultural Research and Extension Services also unveiled a drone-based direct seeding method for rice. Drone direct seeding involves directly sowing rice seeds into the paddy field, which is significant for effectively reducing labor and production costs.

For example, the production cost per 1000㎡ using drone direct seeding is 21,975 KRW and takes 5.22 hours, which is significantly lower in cost and time compared to the conventional mechanical transplanting method (production cost 141,000 KRW, 10.44 hours), the Agricultural Research and Extension Services emphasized.

An official from the Agricultural Research and Extension Services stated, "Compared to mechanical transplanting, drone direct seeding is analyzed to reduce production costs by up to 1.2 million KRW per 10,000㎡ and cut working time by about 80%."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.