Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta
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Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta
#2I'm back in Vietnam (Saigon) for the first time in 4 years and it has been like a time machine. Covid definitely left its mark on this country due to the severe lockdowns they went through. The most interesting change I've noticed is that nearly everyone speaks at least a little English now. Attributed to being locked inside and a lot of YouTube.
It used to be difficult/expensive to get drones here, but I see DJI stores all over town now. Seeing this is super cool and speaks towards how innovative and creative Vietnamese get with whatever they can get their hands on.
Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta
#3I dont get it.
I dont farm rice or have experience in vietnam in particular. Yet in my experience, pesticide etc has always been done thru the already existing irrigation system with a pump.
Of course with advice from a technical person.
The irrigation system requires an upfront investment of course but you are already going to irrigate the plot so this is is a no brainer. Therefore unless the rice grows without any irrigation system, I dont see how drones could be any more cost effective.
I know rice is traditionally grown on flooded plains but that seems very risky - you are leaving your harvest in the hands of nature. Is Vietnam still growing rice subject to the whims of nature?
Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta
#4I'm back in Vietnam (Saigon) for the first time in 4 years and it has been like a time machine. Covid definitely left its mark on this country due to the severe lockdowns they went through. The most interesting change I've noticed is that nearly everyone speaks at least a little English now. Attributed to being locked inside and a lot of YouTube. It used to be difficult/expensive to get drones here, but I see DJI sto…
> I'm back in Vietnam (Saigon) for the first time in 4 years and it has been like a time machine. Covid definitely left its mark on this country due to the severe lockdowns they went through. The most interesting change I've noticed is that nearly everyone speaks at least a little English now.
Interesting - here in Japan the consensus is that the level of English went down, as we had a few years of no tourists and no language assistants.
Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta
#5Ultimately drones may enable purely-mechanical pesticide-free removal of each individual insect/weed.
Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta
#6Are drones being used in the US as well? This type of labor savings seems like a pretty obvious win. Of course I’m just a CRUD monkey living in the city so I have no idea how farmers actually operate.
Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta
#7I'm back in Vietnam (Saigon) for the first time in 4 years and it has been like a time machine. Covid definitely left its mark on this country due to the severe lockdowns they went through. The most interesting change I've noticed is that nearly everyone speaks at least a little English now. Attributed to being locked inside and a lot of YouTube. It used to be difficult/expensive to get drones here, but I see DJI sto…
> I'm back in Vietnam (Saigon) for the first time in 4 years and it has been like a time machine. Covid definitely left its mark on this country due to the severe lockdowns they went through. The most interesting change I've noticed is that nearly everyone speaks at least a little English now. Interesting - here in Japan the consensus is that the level of English went down , as we had a few years of no tourists and n…
Vietnamese are extremely capitalistic as part of the culture. Everything is for sale here.
They realized that they make more money when they speak English to foreigners, so they studied up. I'm not even making this up, one of the kids I was talking to said that.
Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta
#8I dont get it. I dont farm rice or have experience in vietnam in particular. Yet in my experience, pesticide etc has always been done thru the already existing irrigation system with a pump. Of course with advice from a technical person. The irrigation system requires an upfront investment of course but you are already going to irrigate the plot so this is is a no brainer. Therefore unless the rice grows without any…
I'm pretty sure the irrigation system is flooding the plot. You set up berms and then periodically flood the entire plot with water. This isn't subject to the whims of nature because the flooding is done intentionally by farmers.
Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta
#9Glad to see human ingenuity at work here! Pictures in TFA remind me of scenes from the movie The Creator.
Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta
#10I'm back in Vietnam (Saigon) for the first time in 4 years and it has been like a time machine. Covid definitely left its mark on this country due to the severe lockdowns they went through. The most interesting change I've noticed is that nearly everyone speaks at least a little English now. Attributed to being locked inside and a lot of YouTube. It used to be difficult/expensive to get drones here, but I see DJI sto…
> everyone speaks at least a little English now. Attributed to being locked inside and a lot of YouTube
There was a push for English fluency in K-12 around 10 years ago. Most people you are bumping into are products of that era. The non-Saigon/Hanoi/DaNang/DaLat kids who didn't get that opportunity attended the hundreds of ESL schools like "Wall Street English" and "California English" in town