Integrated Solution for Orchard Plant Protection -- Orchard Multi-functional Robot | Panda Agricultural Research

Panda Research

 

Plant protection is of great significance to agricultural modernization, food security and crop yield. Nowadays, the orchard plant protection market has become the new blue ocean of the plant protection market.

In this issue, Mr. Panda will share with you the research of orchard plant protection industry and introduce the general situation of orchard plant protection market in China. In addition, the existing orchard plant protection solutions will be sorted and compared. Finally, a comprehensive solution of orchard plant protection--orchard multifunctional unmanned ground vehicle -- will be introduced. In this study, you will see the following parts:

·A. Orchard Plant Protection Market Overview

·B. Orchard Weeding Solutions

·C. Orchard Spraying Solutions

·D. Orchard Multi-functional Robot -- Integrated Orchard Plant Protection Solution

 

A. Orchard Plant Protection Market Overview

Nowadays, the orchard plant protection market has become the new blue ocean of the plant protection market. With the development of Chinese economy, residents' living standard is constantly improving, and the expenditure of the family for fruit is growing continuously. Today in China, fruit market is the third largest crop market after grain crops and vegetables. Its market size is trillions, which has contributed greatly to Chinese overall economic development, and is expected to continue to grow in the future. Compared with grain crops, planting fruit trees is more profitable. The average income of one mu(Chinese unit of measurement for plot) of orchard is dozens or even hundreds of times that of field crops, which can greatly improve farmers' income.

However, compared with grain crops, the frequency of orchard plant protection and the demand of orchard prevention measures is higher. For example, apples in the north need to be sprayed with various pesticides and regulators 5-8 times a year, while oranges, kiwi fruit, etc. in the south need 10-15 times. Compared with field crops, orchards need more elaborate plant protection management to ensure stable yield and achieve ideal returns. 

Figure1: 2016-2020Chinese Orchard Area(1000 Ha)

Data Source:China's National Bureau of Statistics

In five years, China's orchard area has increased from 10,916 thousand hectares (in 2016) to 12,646 thousand hectares (in 2020), which is expected to continue to grow rapidly in the future.

At present, the traditional orchard plant protection is still based on the manual way, the labor cost is about 150 yuan/day, and one person one day can weed and spray 0.33 hectare of land on average.

Take apple for example, at present China’s apples grow an area of about 2 million hectares,according to spraying 5 times a year , the cost of spraying apples--just one kind of fruit is 4.5 billion yuan. With the application of new plant protection equipment and products, the scale of orchard plant protection market will continue to grow.  

 

B. Orchard Weeding Solutions

At present, there are two main ways of weeding in orchards: physical weeding and chemical weeding. In physical weeding, there are two main solutions: manual weeding and mechanical weeding. In fact, the weeds in the orchard do not need to be completely removed,they only need to be cut to the appropriate height, without affecting the growth of fruit tree itself.

 Figure2: Main subdivisions of orchard plant protection

In physical weeding, manual weeding is the most traditional way. Manual weeding is highly targeted, and even weeds in rows and plants can be mowed. However, the work efficiency of manual weeding is low, and it requires great cost of time and labor, which is not conducive to reducing cost and increasing efficiency of agriculture. In addition, because most of Chinese fruits are grown in mountainous or hilly areas, it is also quite dangerous to carry out orchard weeding manually.

Chemical weeding is using chemicals to kill weeds. Compared with physical weeding, chemical weeding is more convenient and efficient, which can save labor and time and also reduce production costs. However, chemical weeding is more risky. Once the spraying is too concentrated or improper, it is easy to kill the fruit trees.In addition, herbicide residues in the soil will gradually harm the growth of fruit trees, resulting in plant growth retardation or even arrest, directly affecting the future yield and economic benefits of fruit trees.

In addition to manual weeding, the use of mechanical weeding is also one of the physical weeding methods. Compared with manual weeding, the use of orchard multi-functional robot and other machinery eliminates the cost of manpower and greatly improves the speed and efficiency of weeding, thus achieving the purpose of reducing costs and increasing efficiency. At the same time, the orchard multi-functional robot also effectively avoids the harm caused by chemical weeding to the fruit trees, and can accurately weed without harming the natural growth of fruit trees. 

At present, some overseas enterprises are developing new schemes for weeding such as laser weeding and fire weeding. But whether this method is suitable for Chinese agriculture remains to be researched.

 

C. Orchard Spraying Solutions

In orchard spraying, there are several main solutions: manual spraying, UAV(unmanned aerial vehicle) spraying and orchard multifunctional robot. Orchard multifunctional robot is a new direction of orchard plant protection in recent years.

Among the solutions of orchard spraying, the disadvantages of manual spraying are most prominent.  First of all, manual spraying will lead to serious pesticide waste and environmental pollution. Most farmers in China use manual knapsack sprayers in the process of spraying. Its effective attachment rate of pesticides can only reach about 15%. A lot of pesticides are wasted and lost in the process of spraying. At the same time, pesticides flowing into the soil and into the air have also caused considerable damage to the environment. Secondly, manual spraying is more harmful to the health of farmers. In the process of  manual spraying, the clothes of farmers are often soaked by the medicine, which is often prone to productive poisoning, and there is also the risk of cancer. Finally, the efficiency of manual spraying is low and the cost is high. Take the orchard as an example, 200 acres of orchards need at least 20 people to spray, according to the per person $21.75/day wage, hiring 20 people a day costs $435, which causes a greater economic burden to the farmers.

In recent years, the emergence of plant protection unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has made up for the shortcomings of manual spraying to a certain extent. Most of the fruits in China are grown in mountainous and hilly areas or high altitude areas, and most of them are old orchards, which are difficult to access and reach by traditional ordinary machinery. Basically, the unmanned plant protection aircraft is not restricted by the terrain and landform. Also, compared with manual spraying, drones are less harmful to farmers' health. 

Nowadays, UAV has become the trend of field operation, but there are still some drawbacks in orchard plant protection. First, UAV is not effective at spraying fruit trees. UAV sprays from the top of the fruit tree downward. The pesticide fog can only reach the crown, but not the middle and lower part. It is difficult to kill the pests in the middle and lower part of the fruit tree. Also, UAV spraying pressure is low, thus it can not repel the pests on the back of the leaves. The effect of plant protection is greatly reduced because of this. Second, UAV spraying is easy to affect fruit’s quality by causing pesticide spots on fruit because of its heavy spraying concentration. Third, UAV’s small load capacity and short endurance time requires frequent round-trip pesticide refilling and charging. Fourth, UAV operation requires high skill, and its accident rate is also high. To operate a UAV involves paying and passing a certificate. At the same time, because the practical effect of radar obstacle avoidance is not satisfactory, even operated by skilled drone pilots, drones are prone to crash when affected by weather conditions. Fifth, the use and maintenance costs of the battery and charging technology used in UAVs are relatively high.

In the field of orchard spraying, the emergence of orchard multi-functional robot has broken the dilemma of UAV spraying. In addition to the advantages of UAV, orchard multi-functional robot has also solved the drawbacks of manual spraying and UAV plant protection to the maximum extent.

First, orchard multi-functional robot sprays from the bottom up, due to the use of high pressure air delivery technology, orchard multi-functional robot spraying will penetrate very strongly. It can not only kill the pests in the middle and lower part of the fruit tree directly, but also spray the pesticides to the crown of the tree through huge pressure. The wind is strong enough to drive the reversal of the leaf, so that fog drops can attach to both the leaf surface and leaf back. The plant protection effect of orchard multi-functional robot is remarkable.

Second, multi-functional orchard robot has a large water tank that is 10-20 times that of the UAV, and adopts a large fuel tank for the engine to work continuously, with a long endurance time and no need for frequent round-trip pesticide refilling and refueling.

Third, orchard multi-functional robot is easy to control and requires less labor intensity. It can be controlled remotely at home. 

Fourth, orchard multi-functional robot has high safety and is not prone to safety accidents. Equipped with ultrasonic radar, the robot can automatically stop when encountering obstacles, regardless of weather conditions and human sight limitations. At the same time, the orchard multi-functional robot also has the function of electronic fence, can automatically stop when crossing the boundary, to avoid accidents.

D. Orchard Multi-functional Robot -- Integrated Orchard Plant Protection Solution

Orchard multi-functional robot is an intelligent robot with three functions of spraying, weeding and transportation. Specifically, in terms of the spraying function, the online devices can be checked in real time through the mobile APP, low pesticide liquid level alarm can be set, and corresponding solutions can be provided according to the current working conditions. At the same time, historical operation data can be recorded to realize the traceable management of operation. Weeding function can be realized after equipping the robot with weeding machine and planning the driving path. In transport link, orchard multi-functional robot carries the fruit and connects with manual picking seamlessly, greatly improving the transport efficiency. 

In conclusion, orchard multifunctional robot has irreplaceable advantages in weeding and spraying -- two important fields of orchard plant protection. Orchard multi-functional robot not only combines the functions of existing plant protection solutions, but also solves the drawbacks of manual plant protection and UAV. It is the best comprehensive solution in the field of orchard plant protection at present, and has a good market prospect.In the future, with the mass production and promotion of orchard multi-functional robot, it will bring new changes and opportunities for orchard plant protection.