05,22,2026 10 views
On the afternoon of May 21st, with the support of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Guangdong Province, the DJI Agricultural Drone Lychee Application Scene Promotion Conference, jointly organized by the Guangdong Agricultural Technology Promotion Center and the Guangdong Modern Agricultural Equipment Research Institute, was held at Maoming Dianbai.
At the promotion event, DJI Agriculture had in-depth discussions with local fruit farmers, pilots, and partners on the lychee lifecycle operation plan, safety operations, and other related topics. On the day of the event, the "DJI Agricultural Drone Litchi Full Process Operation Flying Defense Service Team" was also established, further promoting local pilot services from single point operations to more professional and standardized collaborative services.
Meanwhile, outside the venue, let's step into Maoming and see the new answers to smart agriculture in Litchi Garden.
New solution for unmanned aerial vehicles in Qiannian Lixiang
One out of every five lychees in the world is produced in Maoming, earning it the nickname of "China's Lychee Town". In mountainous orchards, lychee has a long growth cycle and high management requirements. From plant protection management to harvesting and transportation, every link is related to tree health, fruit quality, and long-term benefits.
Therefore, the application of drones in lychee orchards is not just about whether they can fly, but also about whether fruit farmers dare to use them, whether they can use them well, and whether they can use them for a long time.
Nowadays, in Qiannian Lixiang, DJI agricultural drones are participating in the entire process of lychee orchard operations, reducing the burden on fruit farmers and increasing efficiency for Lixiang.
High quality flight defense
This is the beginning of the daring use of drones in Qiannian Lixiang
Litchi has a high crown and dense branches and leaves, and traditional manual pesticide spraying requires high labor intensity. The efficiency of the operation is also affected by terrain, weather, and manual proficiency.
Based on a 50 acre lychee orchard, it used to take 4 people about 1 day to manually apply medicine; By using drones now, the operation time can be shortened to about 1.5 hours, and the efficiency can be improved by about 21 times. At the same time, a single dose of pesticide can save about 500 yuan, and the annual pesticide usage can be reduced by about 20%.
But for fruit farmers, introducing drones into lychee orchards is never the only answer to efficiency.
A lychee tree often takes several years from planting to fruiting; After entering the peak production period, the results are more likely to last for decades. The quality of a plant protection operation is not only related to one season's harvest, but also to several years of tree health and subsequent management.
Faced with lychee orchards with high tree crowns, dense branches and leaves, and many slopes, DJI agricultural drones rely on the precise spraying ability in fruit tree scenes. By strictly controlling the droplet size and spraying parameters, they can evenly penetrate the liquid medicine into the tree crown and branches and leaves, achieving high-quality automated spraying. letFlight defense operationNot only is it about 'fighting fast', but also 'fighting well', helping fruit farmers move the key plant protection process towards more standardized and sustainable refined management methods.
From 'give it a try' to 'continue using', DJI agricultural drones have become a reliable advanced production tool in Maoming lychee orchards.
From flight defense to hoisting
The full process solution in Liyuan
In May in Maoming, lychees gradually turn red. After entering the harvest season, fruit farmers not only need to seize the time to pick, but also need to quickly transport baskets of fresh fruits out of the orchard. However, many lychee orchards are distributed in hills and mountains, with high fruit trees and many slopes.
In the past, this mainly relied on manual shoulder lifting. Time consuming, labor-intensive, and prone to increased loss of fresh fruits.
Nowadays, DJI agricultural drones are becoming the "air transporters" in orchards, carrying freshly harvested lychees and completing a single aerial lift in just a few minutes. Taking T100S as an example, a single trip can transport 180-190 kilograms, with a maximum daily capacity of about 30000 kilograms, and the transportation loss rate can be controlled within 1%.
For mountainous orchards, this is not just about "saving a few trips", but providing a more efficient and stable solution for the heavy physical labor of harvesting and transportation.
From experimentation to normalcy
Millennium Lixiang provides answers to drone applications
From automated aerial defense to harvesting and hoisting, from orchard management to localized services, more and more fruit farmers in Maoming are incorporating drones into the year-round management of lychee.
Data shows that in 2025, the sales of agricultural drones in Maoming DJI will increase by 130.9% year-on-year. Taking core planting areas such as Songshan and Pinghu in Danchang Town as an example, the coverage rate of drone aerial defense is close to 80%, with an annual cumulative operating area of about 100000 acres.
Behind these data is the process of fruit farmers transitioning from observation to trust in new tools.
For fruit trees with long growth cycles and high management requirements, every technological substitution must withstand the test of long-term operational effects and production practices.
This choice from Qiannian Lixiang is a powerful footnote to the value of DJI's agricultural drone fruit tree solution.
From flying to providing services
Young pilots are becoming a new force in the orchard
Data shows that the number of pilots trained in Maoming will increase by 100.9% year-on-year in 2025, and the pilot training system will continue to improve with the expansion of agricultural drone applications in DJI. In Maoming, the Flying Hand team is mainly composed of individuals or small teams, with self use and service accounting for about 60%.
Young pilots are becoming an important part of rural new professions, and 29 year old Qin Tianhua is one of them.
Qin Tianhua was engaged in car modification in his early years and was skilled in self-learning and hands-on modification. Later, due to taking over the orchard at home, I began to be exposed to agricultural drones. Now, he leads a team of 5 people to use DJI agricultural drones to serve areas such as Dianbai and Yangxi, covering crops such as lychee, cherry blossom, passion fruit, and rice. They not only fly drones, but also research pesticides, crop management, and aerial defense solutions.
Such young pilots are more like technical new farmers. They understand equipment and field management; Can operate and also provide services.
Their choices have also shown more young people new possibilities for serving agriculture.
Nowadays, nearly a thousand pilots are active on the front line in Maoming,
Covering 426000 acres of lychee planting area.
Starting from a lychee,
DJI agriculture is constantly exploring more possibilities for low altitude agriculture.
In the future, agriculture in Xinjiang will continue to thrive
Together with fruit farmers, pilots, and partners
Explore more drone applications for crops, scenarios, and processes,
Let advanced tools serve smart agricultural production.
