Keen to push the dominance of DJI in the agricultural drone space, fellow Chinese smart agriculture technology company XAG’s drones will soon be testing themselves on the Thai agriculture space.

The precision agriculture implements manufacturer has announced that it will be partnering with FarmInno (Thailand), a subsidiary of agriculture solutions company Chia Tai Group, to introduce fully autonomous agricultural drones in Thailand and take smart agriculture to the next level in the country.

The drone company added that the partnership was also targeted at scaling up the potential of Thai farmers with advanced technology and increase both productivity and quality in the agricultural sector.

“XAG focuses on developing drones, robots, and AI technology to advance farming processes with a vision to build a smart agriculture ecosystem for the future,” said XAG’s head of business development Cao Nan.

“Our drone applications range from seeding, fertilization to crop spraying, which have helped smallholders and large farms worldwide to grow more with less. With our ambitious plan, we work with strategic partners to expand our high-performance products to other countries, including Thailand, which is one of the leading export countries of high-quality agricultural products in Southeast Asia.

“Through this partnership, we have seen the potential for growth and development of Thai agriculture which is the mutual ambition to uphold high standards of cultivation and add value to agricultural produce.”

The company added that its drones’ fully autonomous and AI powered capabilities made them highly efficient in spreading and precision spraying. And as all crop spraying drones, so the XAG models – starting with the XAG P100 and XAG V40 – will save time and energy and help alleviate the labour shortage afflicting the Thai agriculture industry, which has to contend with an ageing farming population, where the average age of farmers is 58.46 years.

“It is Chia Tai’s aspiration to contribute to the transformation of Thailand’s agricultural industry, to add to farmers’ ability to grow more efficiently, and more notably and to instil a great sense of pride in the farmer’s profession while also advocating for safe, high-quality produce and improving the quality of life for both farmers and consumers in accordance with our strong commitment to strengthen food security,” said Manas Chiaravanond, Chief Executive Officer of Chia Tai Company Limited.

“Through this strategic partnership with XAG, FarmInno (Thailand), one of Chia Tai’s new businesses, aims to tackle challenges in this industry, including aging farmer population, lack of access to agricultural technology and tools, as well as lack of cultivation know-how to transcend from subsistence farming to become a professional farmer.

“This fully autonomous agricultural drone will help farmers to work faster and more precisely especially in large plantations with efficient spreading and spraying. With more than a century of expertise in the agricultural industry, Chia Tai has accumulated an extensive and diverse body of agricultural knowledge, which has led to an integrated agricultural solution that brings about innovations to solve agricultural complications and issues in a bid to make farming smarter and more convenient than before, while adding value to agricultural produce.”