DJI Technology, the Chinese drone maker which accounts for around 70% of the world's consumer drone market, released two new agricultural drones, T40 and T20P, yesterday. The two products adopt a new operating system and were optimized for fertilizer spreading and fruit tree spraying. These crop-spraying drones free up farmers from their tedious labor, reduce waste and increase efficiency.

Both products support remote map building, users can customize routes for their drone according to their land layout from their phones. The drones are also equipped with active radar and binocular vision system, further enhancing obstacle recognition and avoidance capability.

According to Chen Tao, Senior Sales Director of DJI, the T40 and T20P stem from DJI Agriculture's years of technological breakthroughs and industrial insights in the field of agricultural drones.

Technology is reshaping the landscape in China's agriculture industry. Spraying pesticides, spreading fertilizers, sowing and harvesting, all the time-consuming labor that used to be nightmares for farmers, are now taken over by drones and autonomous vehicles.

DJI has previously rolled out six drones specifically tailored to agricultural use, and has consumers across the global including Korea, Vietnam, Japan, United States, Ukraine, Africa and others, according to DJI's official website.

Another notable player in the field, Baidu-backed XAG, has released unmanned vehicles, soil detectors, weather stations and smart survillance cameras in addition to spraying drones, which when put altogether, can form a IOT network that digitalize the entire agriculture process. XAG has established labs and testing sites in more than 20 countries and collaborated with research institutes such as China Agricultural University.

XAG banked 1.5 billion yuan in March this year, from Baidu Capital, HillHouse Capital, SoftBank and others, making it the largest commercial financing in China's agricultural technology sector, according to the company's website.

According to a statement released by China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, science and technology innovation is the fundamental driving force to promote agricultural and rural modernization in China. Regulators should “increase financial support and create a platform for the transformation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements.”