Uljin-gun, Joint Pest Control of Rice Using Drones... Covering 70% of Total Area

Drone utilization for rice pest and disease control work in Uljin-gun.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Uljin-gun, Gyeongbuk announced on the 14th that it has been conducting the first round of joint pest control using unmanned aerial vehicles starting from Gilgok-ri, Maehwa-myeon on the 13th, in response to the constant occurrence of pests and diseases due to recent climate change.

The joint pest control using unmanned aerial vehicles is a pest control project promoted through collaboration between Uljin-gun and local agricultural cooperatives. The 'Urijin Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Pest Control Team,' composed of young farmers, is jointly participating. Uljin-gun supports 50% of the cost, and the agricultural cooperatives cover 30%.

This joint pest control is conducted by receiving prior applications through towns and townships where unmanned helicopters and drones can be jointly used, covering 1,456 hectares, which corresponds to 70% of the total rice cultivation area, using 8 helicopters and 9 drones, carried out by regional clusters.

The main target pests and diseases are rice blast and neck blast, which frequently occur during the rice heading period and degrade rice quality, as well as planthoppers and rice stem borers. Uljin-gun plans to complete the first round of pest control by the 26th and conduct the second round starting from August 9.

Hwang Jeungho, Director of the Uljin-gun Agricultural Technology Center, stated, "We are implementing pest control with safety measures to prevent damage to beekeeping and livestock farms through prior notification before pesticide spraying," and added, "We expect this to greatly contribute to improving the quality of Uljin rice through thorough prevention and control."

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