Guangzhou, CHINA – Not to be outdone by DJI’s unveiling of the latest Agras drone, which seems to have taken the agriculture industry by storm, Chinese drone maker XAG has launched its V40 and P40 Agricultural Drone globally.

The two-rotor V40 line of drones was first released for the Chinese agriculture market in December last year, and is only being being introduced to the rest of the world.

The drone, XAG claims, will bring digital agriculture into more rural areas with aging population and weak infrastructure. “The XAG V40 and P40 are fully autonomous drones that can conduct mapping, spraying, and broadcast on farm,” the company said in a statement announcing the two drone’s arrival. “They are designed in supporting farmers’ transition to climate smart practices, driving greater growth with lower carbon footprints and less agrochemical.”

The V40 – the flagship model of XAG V Series Agricultural Drone – is the first tilting twin-rotor unmanned flying platform of its kind in agriculture, designed to find the right balance between precision, performance, and efficiency.

“The V40 Agricultural Drone is an award-winning design that embodies XAG’s understanding of agriculture, farmers, and society. This October, XAG V40 earned Japan’s G Mark Good Design Award, one of the world’s top 4 renowned design awards, for its innovation on helping to ease the burden of farmers and protect them from agrochemicals.

“Owing to its twin-rotor structure, the V40 has more concentrated wind field that contributes to an effective spray width up to 10 metres. With multiple aerodynamic optimisations, its spray penetration is over twice that of traditional multi-rotor drone, making drops penetrate more precisely into dense crop canopies. This provides stronger protection against weeds, diseases, and insect pests to close the yield gap.

The P40 meanwhile, is an upgraded model of the classic P Series agricultural drone, which according to the company, is more compact, flexible, and easy to transport with four arms.

“Both V40 and P40 Agricultural Drone are built with highly modular design that can significantly reduce the barriers of farmers to embrace digital agriculture. They support three different task systems – XAG RevoSpray, RevoCast, and RealTerra, which allows farmers to use the same platform for collecting digital field map, sowing seeds, and controlling crop diseases.

“For the first time, XAG RealTerra system enables an agricultural drone to have rapid mapping capability. After it shoots, maps, and analyses farmland images autonomously, both V40 and P40 can be rapidly switched into RevoSpray or RevoCast system to carry out variable-rate operations. Sprays can be precisely targeted on where it is needed to cut down the use of pesticides and fertilisers.”