In the height of China’s "Sanxia" farming season—summer harvesting, planting, and field management—one might expect seasoned farmer Zheng Yuehua to be knee-deep in seedling transplanting and pest control.
However, the veteran who has worked in the fields for over 40 years now takes it more leisurely than ever, as he has entrusted the management of his farmland to a professional agricultural service company.
Standing calmly at the edge of his rice field in Xinxing township, Songyang county, Lishui city, east China’s Zhejiang Province, arms folded, Zheng watched a plant protection drone sprinkle fertilizer over rice seedlings.
Zhou Huiming (left), an executive of an agricultural service company, adjusts a plant protection drone with veteran farmer Zheng Yuehua near a rice field in Xinxing township, Songyang county, Lishui city, east China’s Zhejiang Province. (Photo/Zhou Minlan)
For the first time in over 40 years of rice farming, Zheng doesn’t need to rush to hire workers or worry about the weather window for fertilizing.
"More than 600 mu (40 hectares) of my fields are now under full service management," he said with a grin. "This year, I can finally take it easy."
Behind Zheng’s newfound ease is a quiet transformation in the agriculture industry of Lishui, led by local tech-savvy providers like Lishui Shunhe agricultural development Co., Ltd.
The company’s integration of 3D digital maps of farmland and drone services is changing the way local farmers work, offering precision and efficiency previously unimaginable.
The maps, created with the help of equipment including a drone with a multispectral imaging system, reveal crop health, growth patterns, and soil conditions in stunning detail, according to Zhou Huiming, an executive of the company.
Armed with this data on farmland conditions, drones can now apply fertilizer in a targeted manner—delivering more to struggling patches, and less to thriving areas—making the entire process more efficient, Zhou explained, pointing to 3D maps of farmland displayed on a computer screen.
The 3D maps also help avoid crop damage from manual inspections, reduce fertilizer and pesticide use by over 15 percent, and boost drone efficiency by more than 20 percent, Zhou said.
So far, more than 15,000 mu of farmland has already been mapped this way, covering fields for over 100 farmers, according to Zhou.
These digital maps have gradually formed a 3D farmland database and helped build a comprehensive farmland monitoring system.
Zheng is one of the farmers who has benefited from the upgraded services empowered by the 3D digital maps.
According to him, fertilizing 600 mu of rice fields used to require 10 laborers and a full week, costing over 30,000 yuan ($4,178.42). With drones, the job is done in less than eight hours—for just 6,000 yuan.
"It’s now the peak season for applying basal and topdressing fertilizers as well as weeding, so farmers’ demand is quite high," Zhou said.
During the peak farming season last summer, Zhou’s team delivered customized drone services across Zhejiang and beyond, serving more than 60,000 mu of rice fields and orchards, Zhou recalled.
"This year, we’re expecting to triple that number. Farmers come to us for on-site drone operations every day," he said.
Calling the 3D digital farmland maps a powerful navigation system for plant protection drones, Zhou noted that once the maps are paired with an autopilot system, both farmers and drone operators will be able to "let go", as apart from takeoff and landing, flights will require no manual control at all.
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0618/c98649-20329554.html