Shanxi organized a fleet of drones on March 19 to spray crops with pesticide and fertilizer.

Shanxi Develop Technology Co donated 10 drones to assist with the project, and five groups of drones will be used in total.

Using drones should help improve the efficiency of farm work with the drones able to distribute the pesticide dose more evenly, leading to less chemicals being used on crops than when the work is carried out using manual labor.

The low-cost technology has been used for spraying pesticides and fertilizer on crops and monitoring plant diseases and pest damage, with the rental fee for a drone less than 10 yuan ($1.45) per mu (666.67 square meters) covered.

Most rural households will be able to access the drone service once some 3,000 rural drone service sites across China, which were built by the China Association for Science and Technology and Shanxi Science & Technology Media Group of Press and Publication, are equipped with drones for crop protection.