Returning home during the summer vacation to investigate the application of agricultural drones, Beihang students tried to ＂help agriculture with the sky＂

This summer vacation, with the expectation of giving back to his hometown, Bai Jiayu, a student of Beihang University, once again set foot on the land after six years’ absence.

Bai Jiayu is a 2020-year-old student of Economics in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Beihang University. This summer vacation, she launched the social practice project of "helping agriculture by air" and returned to her hometown to investigate the application and promotion of "agricultural drones".
　
Get up at three o’clock in the morning, go to the farmland to observe the drone spraying situation, and interview the local villagers at a high temperature of 36 degrees Celsius … From July 25th to August 3rd, she and her team members experienced 10 days of hard rural life. Bai Jiayu told reporters that this research report will be fed back to his own innovation and entrepreneurship team. Beihang people will use scientific research capabilities to improve the performance of "agricultural drones" and use new technologies to improve the production and life of grassroots rural areas and revitalize the countryside.

Bai Jiayu (bottom right) took a group photo with his team friends and research subjects in the countryside. Photo courtesy of respondents

Join the school innovation and entrepreneurship team to generate first-line research ideas.
　
This spring, Bai Jiayu came up with the idea of returning home for investigation.

During the winter vacation of her sophomore year, she saw the recruitment notice issued by the innovation and entrepreneurship team of "Spinning Eagle Future" on campus. This is an entrepreneurial team established by seniors from the School of Aviation Science and Engineering, focusing on the development of drones. Because of her hobbies, Bai Jiayu signed up and passed the interview. Based on her major, she is responsible for the market research of agricultural drones and the latest dynamic arrangement in the team to determine the future development direction of the team.
　
"No investigation, no right to speak. We first searched for information on the websites of agriculture and enterprises, and established the leading enterprises in the agricultural drone market and their market share. However, the information obtained from second-hand materials was limited, and it was impossible to find out the rural situation after land transfer, while the online questionnaire survey was uncertain. When writing a business plan, I thought of the idea of going to the front line for research. " Bai Jiayu said.
　
With the support and advice of seniors, Bai Jiayu hopes to go to the front line for research by participating in Beihang’s summer social practice activities. At the end of May, Beijing launched the "Rural Revitalization" action plan for the service of teachers and students in capital universities to support students to participate in social practice in rural areas, which coincides with Bai Jiayu’s idea.

Where to investigate? The children who came out of the country decided to go back to the country.

Baizhuang, Dutang Administrative Village, Zhukou Town, Taikang County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province, is the birthplace of Bai Jiayu, and she has been studying there until junior high school. In my childhood impression, when it rains, the dirt road at the entrance of the village is covered with water and mud, which makes me walk deeper and shallower.

　
"Mom heard that I was going back to research and gave me special support. I found the phone number of the village party secretary and sent it to me at the first time. The village party secretary was very happy when she heard that college students were going to research. She also used the horn at the head of the village to publicize in advance and let the people support more." Bai Jiayu said.

Visiting villagers and observing drone operations on the spot
　

Interview and investigation of Beihang University students in the countryside. Photo courtesy of respondents

For the sake of epidemic prevention and control, the school suggests that students who return home to participate in summer social practice should do it in the surrounding areas within two hours’ drive. Bai Jiayu recruited small partners from the school’s "Henan fellow villagers". "At that time, seven or eight people signed up, and finally I selected several partners who were helpful to the team and had strong expression skills."

After gathering in the local area at the end of July, the students went to the countryside together. After leaving the village for 6 years and setting foot on this land again, everything has changed for Bai Jiayu. The dirt road has become a cement road, and the broken tile-roofed house has been replaced by small buildings. The village has placed garbage cans, which is cleaner and has tap water. "The first feeling is that the living standards of the whole village have improved a lot, and the poverty alleviation policy has been put in place, which has brought gratifying changes to rural areas and farmers." Bai Jiayu said with emotion.
　
The team spent two days in the village interviewing more than a dozen farmers, including the village head. Bai Jiayu found that the utilization rate of agricultural drones in the village has reached as high as 50%. Most villagers have heard of drones, and township governments also have free promotion activities to spray crops with drones every year. Used farmers say "it really saves effort".

After that, the team friends drove to Machang Town to investigate the plant protection service team. This is a team spontaneously organized by agricultural and commercial enterprises selling chemical fertilizers and pesticides according to local planting conditions. They also use drones to provide farmers with services such as fertilization and spraying. They suggested that Bai Jiayu’s team investigate local drone sellers and observe drone operations on the spot.
　

Local agricultural drones sprayed pesticides on the fields. Photo courtesy of respondents

　
During the interview with the seller, the other party mentioned that it planned to go to the village two hours away to carry out "agricultural operation activities on 4,000 mu of land", but spraying pesticides required high weather, so it was necessary to set off at 4: 30 in the morning, spray a wave before 10: 00 in the morning, and then continue the operation after 5: 00 in the evening. "Catching up with the hot weather and rain will bring difficulties to pesticide spraying. This practice can be said to be now or never. They asked us if we could go or not, and I said, OK!"

　
So, everyone got up at three o’clock in the morning, first drove to the seller’s place to gather, then went to the big farmland to observe the drone spraying pesticides together, survived the heat of the day, and continued to work at night … On the day of homework, Bai Jiayu and his partners were busy until 8 or 9 o’clock in the evening, and they didn’t go to sleep until 11 o’clock after finishing the harvest of the day. "I was too tired."
　

Recently, Bai Jiayu is focusing on combing the video interview materials of the survey. "The headache is to translate the dialects of local villagers into Mandarin." Referring to this practical experience, Bai Jiayu said with a smile that it is common to miss lunch and get up early and get greedy, but it also gains a lot.

"We got a lot of advice from Flying Hands, and we also learned about the disadvantages of drones on the market at present, such as poor endurance and poor obstacle avoidance function." By observing the drone operation on the spot and communicating with the "flying hand", Bai Jiayu mastered the first-hand information.

For example, the problem of short battery life, the "flying hands" can spray 20 acres of land for 7 or 8 minutes, but at this time, the power of the drone is also exhausted, so the flying hands need to bring two batteries, and when one is used up, charge it quickly and replace it with another one, which is more troublesome and inefficient; In terms of obstacle avoidance ability, because there are often tall trees outside the corn field, it is often difficult for drones to avoid obstacles and need to be manually operated by "flying hands".

Therefore, she hopes to report these problems and feed them back to her innovation and entrepreneurship team. She hopes that Beihang students can develop a plant protection drone that can overcome the disadvantages and contribute to the development of agriculture.

Ding Ruiyun, deputy secretary of the Youth League Committee of Beihang University, introduced that in the summer of 2022, nearly 3,000 students from Beihang University set sail to carry out summer social practice activities in a combination of online and offline. During this summer practice, students will investigate the achievements of China’s aerospace industry development, overall well-off society and anti-epidemic, and will also go deep into rural areas to carry out social practice activities such as theoretical policy propaganda, observation of development achievements, popularization of law and popular science, and scientific and technological support for agriculture. "The school will provide financial support and actively publicize the students’ achievements, and encourage students to carry out practical activities in the form of awards and scholarships."

Beijing News reporter Liu Yang

Editor Miao Chenxia proofreads Liu Baoqing.