Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have quickly become familiar tools on many Vietnamese fields. From spraying and seeding to crop-health monitoring, drones cut labor, save inputs and improve precision.
Types of agricultural drones
Agricultural drones fall broadly into two groups: spraying and seeding units, and imaging-sensor monitoring units, with some modern devices combining both. The right choice depends on farm scale, crop and objective.
Precision spraying and seeding
Spray drones use centrifugal or pressure nozzles to create fine droplets and follow pre-programmed flight paths via satellite positioning, distributing inputs evenly and accurately.
- Significant savings in water and pesticide versus manual spraying.
- Less direct chemical exposure for workers.
- Faster response during pest outbreaks.
- Access to difficult terrain or flooded fields.
Field monitoring with multispectral sensors
Drones with multispectral cameras capture crop light reflectance to compute indices such as NDVI, assessing crop health and detecting stressed zones early. From NDVI maps, farmers can target fertilization, irrigation or pest treatment rather than treating the whole field uniformly, the foundation of precision farming.
Regulation and operator training
Operating agricultural drones must comply with UAV management rules, including device registration and flight permission in certain areas. Operators need training covering flight control and emergency handling, chemical dosing and safety, maintenance and battery management, and reading field-map data.
Economics and service models
For many households the cost of a dedicated drone is a barrier, so spray-for-hire service models are growing, letting farmers access the technology without owning equipment.
- Investment or service cost versus manual labor.
- Savings in pesticide, water and seed from precise application.
- Value added by timely treatment and reduced pest losses.
- Area and usage frequency for reasonable equipment depreciation.
Organized well through service and cooperative models, drone technology can be economically viable even for fragmented, scattered production areas.
Drones do not replace farmers; they extend their reach, helping them make more accurate, data-driven decisions.
ASTRI's direction
ASTRI identifies UAV technology and precision farming as high-potential areas for research, application and transfer. By connecting drone technology to the real needs of farmers and cooperatives and supporting safe-operation training, ASTRI aims to bring digital tools into the field effectively, raising productivity, cutting costs and protecting producers' health.