Drones spray insecticides and fungicides on wheat at an unmanned farm in Bozhou, East China’s Anhui Province, on March 7, 2025. Photo: VCG
“Every time I fly the drone, it draws a crowd – especially elderly farmers – who marvel at how it flies and carries heavy loads,” Liu Yang, a 37-year-old drone operator, told the Global Times, right beside a truck that was ready to transport the oranges at Pengjiapo village, Zigui county, Central China’s Hubei Province.
The journey that once required 40 minutes of strenuous labor – hauling heavy baskets of navel oranges – now takes just one minute with the drone, which can carry 50 to 60 kilograms from the mountaintop to the truck parked at the foot of the mountain, said Liu.
Now, this curiosity has turned more farmers from “bystanders” to practitioners, as more and more farmers have attended training courses on drone operations to obtain a license, the Global Times has learned.
From ‘bystanders’ to practitioners
“We conducted drone operation training that attracted farmers of various age groups from surrounding villages and towns. In addition to young participants, farmers in their 50s or even older are actively engaged in the program,” Wang Enjie, general manager of Zigui county Weichu Cloud Warehouse Logistics Service Co and secretary-general of the e-commerce association in Zigui, told the Global Times.
A drone training base in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, has seen a surge in farmer enrollments. So far, Qingdao Vane Aviation Co has trained over 15,000 individuals, with a significant increase in enrollment since the second half of 2024, according to Jiang Haitao, head of the company.
“The training lasts about 25 days, with 8 hours of training per day. We’ve now reached the 105th training session, with an average of around 200 participants per session,” Jiang added.
30-year-old Yuan Li attended drone operation training in 2019. He returned to his hometown, Duanbolan county in Qingdao, and started using drones to spray pesticides and water the crops.
“In the past, two people could only cover about 10 mu (0.67 hectares) to 20 mu in a day. After I bought our family’s first drone, we managed to cover nearly 300 mu in just one morning,” Yuan told the Global Times.
However, drones were initially met with skepticism in Duanbolan. Many villagers had never heard of them, let alone believed such a small machine could outperform traditional manual labor, Yuan noted. In order to help villagers better know the functions of drones, Yuan marked out two experimental plots in his wheat field: one for precise pesticide application using drones and the other for traditional manual spraying.
After a month, pest infestation in the manually treated plot was around 40 percent, compared to just 5 percent in the drone-treated area. Yuan introduced that with corn, manual spraying with a backpack sprayer only covers the surface of the leaves, leaving the undersides untreated. But drones can create airflow that flutters the leaves, ensuring both sides are covered with pesticide.
Not only did pest damage decrease, but during harvest, Yuan also found that the drone-treated wheat field yielded 10-20 percent more than the manually treated one.
Liu also had a similar experience. “You can see the immediate effect of transporting oranges with drones. However, it was hard to persuade farmers to spray pesticides and fertilizer by drone. We have to use a control group to show farmers that the drone is better and more effective.”
Seeing the results, more farmers began training as drone operators
Embracing more high-tech
Apart from drones, farmers are also embracing other high-tech to increase efficiency and income.
For example, Wang said that Zigui county is actively advancing the application of e-commerce and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help farmers enhance their skills to expand income-generating channels.
“Some farmers are already experimenting with livestreaming sales and integrating AI technology for promotions and content creation,” said Wang.
A session had already been organized for over 80 farmers interested in AI, with participants primarily being younger individuals, Wang added.
Zigui was officially lifted out of poverty as recently as April 2019. In about five years, advanced technologies have played a pivotal role in driving the county’s digital transformation and modernization.
This is just one epitome of how Chinese farmers are piloting agricultural modernization. Through drone training, e-commerce and AI technology, farmers are gradually mastering modern skills, injecting new momentum into rural revitalization.
Top-down support
Such a transition was also boosted by government support from all levels.
In Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, the agricultural department subsidized agricultural drone purchases by up to 14,400 yuan ($1,990) per drone, according to a notice released in February.
Ningde in East China’s Fujian Province in September 2024 subsidized training fees for farmers attending drone operation courses, as high as 88,052 yuan, meaning farmers were trained for free.
On January 23 this year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, released interim regulations on the training and management of agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operators.
The 2025 regulations specify training content, duration, and certification requirements.
These measures are seen as the latest efforts to fill the talent gap in China’s drone operator workforce.
As of June 2024, there were 1.875 million registered UVAs nationwide, yet only over 225,000 individuals hold drone operator licenses, according to data released by the CAAC.
On the basis of previous efforts, China is now comprehensively advancing rural revitalization with modern technologies.
According to the 2025 Government Work Report, China will make every effort to deliver in work relating to agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents and take solid steps to advance all-around rural revitalization.
“We will also back rural industries with distinctive features to extend their industrial chains, increase returns, and recruit and benefit more rural residents, thus expanding the channels for increasing rural incomes,” the report stated.
Drones transport and load navel oranges in Zigui county, Central China’s Hubei Province, on March 17, 2025. Photo VCG