The determinants of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) adoption and status quo of UAV-based pattern management in Chinese agriculture: insights from expert interviews

In China, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used for broadcast application of agricultural inputs such as pesticides, fertilizers, and seeds. UAVs have the potential for site-specific precision agriculture, facilitating precise management of fertilization, plant protection, and irrigation to reduce environmental footprint of farming. There has been research on the use of UAVs in agriculture, but less is known about UAV-based precision agriculture, particularly pattern management. To close these research gaps, this paper conducted structured in-depth interviews with 18 experts from various fields related to UAVs in Chinese agriculture to study the status quo, drivers, and barriers of adopting UAVs, focusing on UAV-based precision agriculture, particularly pattern management. The results show that the adoption of UAVs in China is influenced by farmers’ production characteristics, farmers’ perceptions about UAVs, and social factors. UAV-based precision agriculture is at the initial stage in China, and the promotion of this approach still needs to overcome technical barriers such as improving the accuracy of crop measurements, developing real-time UAV positioning systems, and enhancing the response time of variable-rate spraying systems, as well as socio-economic barriers like farmers’ limited UAV-related knowledge, small farm sizes, and lack of technical assistance.