00:00Taking off, XAG drones on display at Cereals, the annual show dedicated to crop farming.
00:08The Guangzhou-based company has spent three years trying to break into the market,
00:12knowing a welcome by UK authorities would help ease their entry into Western Europe.
00:17UK market for us is very important because it's not only for the UK but also for the whole Europe
00:23because for the neighboring countries, actually they keep a close eye on the development in British market
00:29and not only for their regulations but also for other scenarios.
00:34After a report showed the wider use of drones could contribute $55 billion to the economy by 2030,
00:41while cutting 2.4 million tons of carbon emissions and creating 650,000 new jobs,
00:47the British government has got behind them.
00:50Behind me you can see traditional sprayers and they're large and extremely heavy on the soil
00:55and it's these that the British government are trying to replace with drones.
00:59They want to get over 180,000 into the air by the end of the decade.
01:04Farmers can now apply for a 60% grant towards the cost of agricultural drones
01:09while UK regulators have also cleared the spraying of a commonly used pesticide, slug pellets.
01:15Other chemical permissions are expected to follow.
01:18XAG's UK partner says months of wet weather has also prompted British farmers to look to drones.
01:24They can lose their entire crop to slugs because they can't get on to treat them at the right time
01:29and it is about doing it at the right time.
01:32Slugs come out when it's wet.
01:34Tractors can't go in the field when it's wet.
01:36So the farmer is desperately waiting for it to get dry enough that he can get on with his tractor
01:41while watching the slugs eat all of his fresh emerging crop.
01:45The changes and incentives are leading to a growing number of people investing in drones
01:50to offer uber-style services in painting, seeding and now spraying chemicals.
01:55The business with the drones is absolutely new in the UK
01:59and farmers didn't use the drones previously for the fields or for the greenhouses cleaning.
02:05So we're learning about the industry, we are helping guys to form the market.
02:11XAG is not the only tech company looking to revolutionise traditional farming practices
02:16with robots an increasingly common sight.
02:19If we target pesticides and apply them in a more targeted way,
02:24we're going to dramatically reduce usage, we're going to reduce our carbon footprint.
02:28If we can do it through electrically driven drones, it's going to change everything.
02:34Farmers are still sort of cautious but they're great takers up of technology when they need to.
02:39Costing around $50,000, six XAG drones were sold in the UK last year.
02:45That number has jumped to 12 this month.
02:48Having cleared regulatory hurdles to fly and now spray chemicals,
02:51the Guangzhou-based company says it hopes to replicate the success it's seen in Asia in Western Europe.
02:58Catherine Drew, CGTN, Bedfordshire.
Comments