Development status and countermeasures of agricultural aviation in China

Abstract: Agricultural aviation is one of the most important parts of modern agriculture. In order to understand the development status and trend of Chinese agricultural aviation industry comprehensively and in depth, and reflect the difficulties and problems that the whole industry need to face recently, the secretary department of China Agricultural Aviation Industry Alliance (CAAIA) organized to publish the Report on Industry Development of Agricultural Aviation in China (2016), which will enhance public understanding and awareness of agricultural aviation, and promote the rapid and healthy development of agricultural aviation industry. The paper summarized the development and application of Chinese agricultural aviation industry in recently years, mainly involving manned aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The overall situation of Chinese agricultural aviation was presented; some statuses, for example, the flight time used in agricultural aviation has been grown steadily, and the development of unmanned aircraft has shown a pleasant increasing tendency, were analyzed. The main problems to be solved in Chinese agricultural aviation in industry standards, laws and regulations system, the core technology, the main supporting business and social services, and other aspects, were pointed out. As the chain of Chinese agricultural aviation industry is still imperfect, many areas are still in blank or start-up stage, including application requirements like agricultural aircraft manufacturing, leasing, intermediary, training and other auxiliary operational support, maintenance services and promotion, financing, insurance and other application requirements. At the same time, the main problems that need to be solved instantly show that there are the lagging construction industry standards and a perfect system has not yet been formed for agricultural aviation standardization; policies and regulations related to agricultural aviation are not well organized; due to the research funding shortage, the core and key technology researches on agricultural aviation lag behind its application; the immature development pattern has caused a weak service ability of social organization; and the small enterprise scale brings about the unreasonable industrial structure, and disorderly competition happens on the market sometimes. Then, aiming at the above problems, from management, pattern, standard, innovation, application and policy, this paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions to promote the healthy development of Chinese agricultural aviation industry, mainly including 6 aspects: To further clarify the management measures, to further explore the development pattern, to further strengthen the formulation of standards and collaborative innovation of key technologies for agricultural aviation, to further promote the aerial application in agriculture, and to further issue the policies that are good for the industry development. These can guide the development of agricultural aviation industry and provide a reference for the government. In the next 3 five-year plans, the development goals of Chinese agricultural aviation industry should be as follows: The overall level should be at the same pace with the developed countries, and furthermore, it is expected to reach the "leading" status for the agricultural unmanned aircraft operations.