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Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

hakaimagazine.com

11–20 of 279 posts

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#11
post #6

Are 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.

Absolutely, and ironically, given recent news, I think DJI is one of the top manufacturers used.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#12
post #2

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. 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

"Hi, what is your name? Where are you from?"

It was pretty mediocre and that was the depth of it.

Unless you're in a private school, my experience is that education here is still pretty poorly handled. Kind of "blind leading the blind".

What I'm seeing now is that even the older generations are speaking some English too now, where previously I would just get the infamous jazz hands.

I'm also in a big city... it'll be interesting to see how things are when I head out into the country side again.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#13
post #6

Are 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.

Absolutely, and ironically, given recent news, I think DJI is one of the top manufacturers used.

VN and China have a FTA (part of the ASEAN FTA)

> Are drones being used in the US as well

Yes. We even funded a couple prominent players in the space that got acquired a decade ago.

Chicago, Champaign-Urbana, Pittsburgh, and Ames used to be hubs in this niche back then.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#15
post #6

Are 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.

Yes. Until recently though, spraying by drone was a near impossible permitting nightmare (now it’s only a minor permitting nightmare) and was inefficient because you needed a Part 107 pilot and a Visual Observer for each individual drone. But, things have gotten better. Before, spray drones over 55lb (the limit for a Small UAS in the US) had to go through an experimental aircraft registration program and be granted a tail number. Now, a select list of drones are authorized for spray operations with a special waiver instead, which is way easier.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#16
post #4
post #2

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. 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…

Today, as a tourist in Japan many restaurants and bars outside of Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka and some in those places will not serve me food or a whiskey highball because I am not Japanese. They say "No English" as the reason. Four African students who recently graduated from the University of Kyoto were refused entry into a bar in Kyoto as I walked by. They all speak English and Japanese fluently unlike many of their Japanese classmates. This is high contrast to Vietnam where people would stop me as I walked down the street offering me a beer poured from a pitcher, a seat at their table on the sidewalk, or food and they would try to speak English with me. I also noticed that there is a lot of cooperation between people of different countries in Asia done with English. I would not be surprised if the common language of the Chinese and Vietnamese people mentioned in the article is English.

Vietnam is my favorite place in Asia. It felt like the country is trying very hard to address many of the environmental problems like moving from gas powered to electric vehicles.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#17
post #15
post #6

Are 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.

Yes. Until recently though, spraying by drone was a near impossible permitting nightmare (now it’s only a minor permitting nightmare) and was inefficient because you needed a Part 107 pilot and a Visual Observer for each individual drone. But, things have gotten better. Before, spray drones over 55lb (the limit for a Small UAS in the US) had to go through an experimental aircraft registration program and be granted a…

Interesting!

In Australia we see drones mapping areas that need to be sprayed, then that data is downloaded into a tractor which traverses the field spraying (or adding nutrient) according to data collected by the drone. Haven't heard of spraying drones yet

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

"Hi, what is your name? Where are you from?" It was pretty mediocre and that was the depth of it. Unless you're in a private school, my experience is that education here is still pretty poorly handled. Kind of "blind leading the blind". What I'm seeing now is that even the older generations are speaking some English too now, where previously I would just get the infamous jazz hands. I'm also in a big city... it'll be…

> that education here is still pretty poorly handled. Kind of "blind leading the blind".

It is, but the tourism boom began around sa decade ago as well, which pushed (pidgin) English fluency front and forward in Tier 1 cities (eg - https://laodong.vn/chinh-sach-giao-duc/dieu-kien-lam-giao-vi...).

Most Vietnamese born after 1980 who consume foreign content prefer Korean, Chinese, and Japanese content over Western (based on my wife and her extended family's experience)

In Saigon at least there was a push for English teaching in K-12, and ik international teachers (mostly Pinoy) were hired as contractors to teach part time in that initiative.

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#19
post #15
post #6

Are 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.

Yes. Until recently though, spraying by drone was a near impossible permitting nightmare (now it’s only a minor permitting nightmare) and was inefficient because you needed a Part 107 pilot and a Visual Observer for each individual drone. But, things have gotten better. Before, spray drones over 55lb (the limit for a Small UAS in the US) had to go through an experimental aircraft registration program and be granted a…

Is it possible to buy a piece of land and just get a rule that says "I can pretty much fly anything 100 feet up in the air above my property"?

It's kindof frustrating that this isn't the case.

If you're a company developing drones, for instance, how do you even test them?

Re: Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the Mekong River delta

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Hi, what is your name? Where are you from?" It was pretty mediocre and that was the depth of it. Unless you're in a private school, my experience is that education here is still pretty poorly handled. Kind of "blind leading the blind". What I'm seeing now is that even the older generations are speaking some English too now, where previously I would just get the infamous jazz hands. I'm also in a big city... it'll be…

> that education here is still pretty poorly handled. Kind of "blind leading the blind". It is, but the tourism boom began around sa decade ago as well, which pushed (pidgin) English fluency front and forward in Tier 1 cities (eg - https://laodong.vn/chinh-sach-giao-duc/dieu-kien-lam-giao-vi... ). Most Vietnamese born after 1980 who consume foreign content prefer Korean, Chinese, and Japanese content over Western (ba…

> Most Vietnamese born after 1980 who consume foreign content prefer Korean, Chinese, and Japanese content over Western (based on my wife and her extended family's experience)

Agreed, I've noticed this as well from when I was living here before. The difference today is that I'm noticing more english youtube content being consumed. I wish we could see youtube stats on this.

My partner is 1983... grew up in D3... near perfect english... only likes western content. A bit of an oddball in that regard, which sets them apart mentally from the rest.

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