Mr. Huynh Tan Dat, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department, speaks at the meeting
The Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Vietnam CropLife Association have just organized a workshop on Drone/ unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Pesticide Application: Sharing Practices – Regulatory frameworks in APAC and Adoption Roadmap in Vietnam. Meeting participants gave comments on the draft of grassroots standards on testing pesticides by UAVs.
The test results are the basis for the Plant Protection Department to develop a draft of grassroots standards on testing pesticides by UAVs, based on regulations and suggestions from 15 organizations, associations, individuals, experts, and the country’s actual conditions.
In addition to updates on the current status of application and management of UAVs/drones in the agricultural sector in the Asia-Pacific region, the information from the workshop also outlined the benefits and potential application of this technology in Vietnam.
This is also a forum to introduce and receive comments from stakeholders for the draft of grassroots standards on the trial of pesticides in paddy fields to control plant pests by unmanned aerial vehicles. This is considered an important technical guide to deploying this technology in the near future in the field of plant protection in Vietnam.
According to Mr. Huynh Tan Dat, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department, this is a premise workshop towards the application of 4.0 technologies in agricultural production; renewing thinking and changing farming methods towards sustainability in order to save input costs, reduce negative impacts from agricultural farming on health and environment as well as improve the quality of agricultural products. He hoped that businesses will continue to accompany state and local management agencies, towards effective and timely application of this technology.
In the field of plant protection, the application of drones to spray pesticides is increasingly popular thanks to the outstanding advantages of efficiency, accuracy, cost savings, reduced water use, and high capacity. Above all, using drones can help protect farmers’ health and prevent dangerous pests such as desert locusts in some countries.
Drone application is seen as a solution to support global farmers, especially small-scale farmers in Asian countries can solve some challenges. Applications for drones include mapping, crop inspection and monitoring, pesticide spraying, irrigation, and livestock grazing monitoring.
According to research by Goldman Sachs, the agriculture sector is forecast to be the industry with the second largest level of drone adoption globally in the next five years.
