Agricultural UAVs represent one of the most commercially mature and largest-market applications in the low-altitude economy. China’s agricultural drone market grew from under RMB 10 billion in 2016 to over RMB 40 billion in 2023, with annual operation area exceeding 2 billion mu-times. This rapid growth is driven by labor shortages (aging rural population), large-scale agricultural development, and policy requirements for precision pesticide application.
## Core Application Scenarios
**Precision crop protection (spraying)**: the most mature agricultural drone application. Aerial spraying improves operation efficiency 20–30x versus manual application (single drone covering 600–1,000 mu/day), improves pesticide utilization ~30% (precision atomization, reduced drift), and significantly reduces labor costs.
**Seeding and fertilization**: precision seeding (direct-seeded rice, oil rapeseed air-seeding) and fertilization operations, suited for large flat land parcels. Models like XAG T50 carry 120 kg payloads for large-area efficient operations.
**Multispectral remote sensing and crop monitoring**: drones equipped with multispectral cameras generate NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) maps visually reflecting crop growth status, water stress, and pest/disease distribution. Combining remote sensing data with AI analysis enables variable rate application (VRA) — applying different amounts of pesticides/fertilizers to different areas.
**Surveying and land parcel documentation**: high-precision survey drones (RTK positioning) generate orthophoto maps and 3D terrain models, providing foundational data for precision agriculture digital management.
## Market Landscape
**DJI Agriculture**: extending from DJI’s consumer drone ecosystem; T-series crop protection drones (T25, T50) and the DJI Agriculture management platform. Market share approximately 30%.
**XAG (Extreme Aerial and Ground)**: dedicated to agricultural drones; product line covers crop protection (P series), seeding (XP series), remote sensing (P Mapper), and ground agricultural machinery. Leading the industry in software ecosystem (XAIR platform) and solution completeness. Market share approximately 25%.
See [Low-Altitude Economy Overview](https://sunqi.org/low-altitude-economy-overview-en/) and [XAG official site](https://www.xag.com.cn/).
