Just buy a plane to get a flight certificate
In Vietnam, the use of agricultural drones for fertilizing, spraying pesticides, etc. is regulated in Decree No. 36/2008/ND-CP of the Government. To use it, organizations and individuals must request and be licensed by a competent authority, the Department of Combat - General Staff.
For drivers, they must be 18 years old, have civil capacity and have a flight management license issued by a competent authority.
However, in reality, the management of agricultural drones is revealing worrying gaps. Economic records during the long days in many localities in the Mekong Delta show that drone management is at an alarming level.
" as long as you have money to buy drones, you can become a " pilots" - a drone owner in Thap Muoi district, Dong Thap province said.
According to this person, when there is a need to buy (whether for domestic use or service), the equipment supplier will take staff to the location to guide customers on how to drive, simple operations and handle arising incidents.
After practice, the device supplier issues a "Flying Certificate" - such as a Aircraft Driving License that the recipient does not need to prove or provide any documents, nor does it need to meet the minimum cultural standards. All are as easy as buying vegetables. Moreover, the drone supplier also packages documents for the drone to operate.
Because it is easy to access, easy to learn, easy to practice, many people think that drones are easier to drive than growing rice, so they are willing to accumulate capital as an investment of "one-for-one capital". Mr. Bui Tan Hau (Thap Muoi district) said: "Some people have accumulated investment capital to buy a machine worth hundreds of millions, but due to poor control skills, only a few flights, the drone crashed, failed... Many people lost hundreds of millions of VND after just 10 days of shopping".
Some drone drivers said that turning off radar for manual control and lacking support when landing are common errors, posing many potential dangers when operating drones. Not to mention, the later it gets, the machine can also fall off on its own due to aging batteries...
"Once, I was flying when the control part of the plane broke down. When I brought them to the station, they said the warranty had expired and I had to spend tens of millions of VND to replace them" - a service drone driver revealed. "I lost money, but I consider it lucky because when the drone crashed, there was no one below, otherwise the consequences would be very serious".
Among the hundreds of people who own agricultural drones in the Mekong Delta, besides qualified " pilots" from agricultural engineers, there are still many amateurists, so their ability to control the machine is not good. Some even drove quite "recklessly", landing without observing, even when landing near the residential road.
Drone service deploys soldiers
At the end of October 2024, Lao Dong Newspaper received information from farmers and agricultural officials about stink bugs attacking rice in the third crop (autumn and winter) in the Long Xuyen Quadrangle. Present at the hot spot in Hon Dat district (Kien Giang province) - a locality bordering An Giang province, we recognized the left side behind the high-tech "light" of the world of agricultural drones.
Although we had expected the terrible consequences of stink bugs traveling on the rice fields of Lang Com hamlet (Binh Giang commune), we could not help but be surprised by the scene of many farmers falling into the "matrix" of the drone service.
"After 3 days of spraying pesticides once, but after a few times seeing that the number of stink bugs in the rice fields had not decreased, I was impatient, so I shortened it to 2 days of spraying at once," said Mr. Huynh Van Co (Lang Com Hamlet, Binh Giang Commune, Hon Dat District, Kien Giang Province).
It is worth mentioning that at first, Mr. Co used 2-3 types, but after a few sprays that were not as effective as expected, it increased to 4-5 types/spray bottle.
With great confidence, Mr. Co complied with all treatment regimens given by the " pilots" drove drones. However, after a period of spraying many mixed drugs, not only could they not kill stink bugs, but Mr. Co's rice fields also had new diseases due to chemical poisoning.
When recording in Thap Muoi district, an agricultural drone driver admitted that there was an " alliance" between a fertilizer and pesticide supply enterprise and many drone pilots. The drug distributor offers a promotion or commission of about 10% for drone services. This means increasing flight times and increasing the number of pesticides will double your income, he added.
Tricks to reduce costs but reduce flight turnover
In addition to increasing flight times, service drone drivers are also ready to offer many tricks to maximize profits and increase competitiveness in the context of the drone explosion.
According to the survey, currently, the price of service drug spraying in the Mekong Delta is decreasing sharply compared to before. From being maintained for a long time at the price of 150,000 VND/ha/ spraying or fertilizer, recently the service price has appeared at 120,000 - 130,000 VND, even in some specific areas, only 100,000 VND/ha.
This is considered one of the ways that facilities increase their competitiveness in the context of the explosion of drone services. At first glance, it seems that farmers are benefiting, but in reality, this is not the case.
With the highest price, when spraying, the service drone team will mix the right amount of water, usually from 4 - 5 liters/cong, or 40 - 50 liters/ha. When at low flight prices, the person who breaks the medicine only uses 30 liters/ha, some places 25 liters/ha, to reduce flight time while still ensuring the criteria for drug exhaustion.
"Of course, it is easy to understand that when spraying and mixing water a lot, the effectiveness will be higher and vice versa. For example, for grass spray, if you spray less water, the grass will not die and farmers will have to pay for spraying again, as a result farmers will suffer, a drone driver revealed.
Traps
"We have sold all kinds of medicine but still cannot treat it, the rice is reduced to 5-7%", farmers in Lang Com hamlet admitted after hiring a drone team to handle stink bugs.
Pointing to the rice flowers with many colorful spores on the rice fields of farmers, Mr. Tran Minh Hieu - agricultural technician for crops and biological fertilizers - shared: "This is the most recognizable sign of rice grains being poisoned by pesticides".
Regarding this issue, Master Nguyen Phuoc Tuyen - former Director of the Agricultural Extension Center of Dong Thap province - acknowledged that farmers lacking basic knowledge to identify it as a concern, but let the tricks of increasing profits harm rice plants be the most painful.
Because, unlike state agencies aimed at pure service, with pesticide businesses, or unhealthy service spraying models, the important issue is profits.
Each drone has 16 different spraying methods suitable for each epidemic target, purpose of use... Therefore, even if there is a medicine, sprayed at the right time, without technique, the drug's effectiveness cannot be maximized, Mr. Tuyen emphasized.
According to Mr. Tuyen, this approach even pushes farmers into a situation of "losing money and getting sick". Because they still spend money on medicine and wages, but rice plants do not receive enough medicine to fight the epidemic...
