2018 September, Xinjiang China - XAG initiates large scale cotton defoliation operation a second consecutive year, calling for over 1000 plant protection teams and 3000 units of P series plant protection UAS from across the country to join. The mission of this operation is to help cotton farmers increasing production and income, as well as improving the overall quality of China’s cotton.

This year's cotton planting area in Xinjiang exceeded 2.5 million hectares, and it is estimated that 1.5 million hectares of cotton will be mechanically harvested. In order to ensure that the cotton blooms evenly and plump before harvest, meanwhile allow the cotton leaves to be fully dehydrated and fall without affecting the harvest, cotton farmers need to spray the cotton field with defoliant in the shortest possible time.

With the maturity of technology and the development of the market, more and more Xinjiang cotton farmers choose to spray defoliant with UAVs. As the demand for defoliation rises, more and more areas requires UAS operation. Therefore, the importance of precise RTK navigation and centrifugal atomisation spraying technology have become more obvious.

In this year's battle against time for cotton defoliants, not only will XAG utilise the P series plant protection UASs, but also take the lead in using AI (artificial intelligence) prescription map technology to carry out detailed operational analysis and spray parameter planning in cotton fields. The obtained data will help the operators to save time and reduce chemical waste. 

XAG’s AI team has conducted research for more than two years in their own cotton field to achieve such goal. With the use of image recognition and deep learning technologies, it is expected to reduce the pollution to the soil as well as chemical residues in crops caused by inaccurate chemical dosage.