Agricultural drone contest held in China

HANGZHOU - An agricultural drones contest was held Thursday in Jinhua, a city in East China's Zhejiang province.

Organized by the provincial agricultural department, the contest tested the operators' handling skills .

Twenty-two teams participated with multiple-rotor drones capable of carrying objects up to 10 kilograms.

Wang Jianwei, head of the agricultural machinery administration in Zhejiang, said that the province has 298 registered agricultural drones.

"Aerial spraying is safer and more efficient than ground level spraying," he said, explaining a drone can spray hundreds of times more than a human in the same time.

Zhejiang supports farmers who use drones with subsidies of up to 20,000 yuan (around $3,000) for agricultural drones.

Cai Yuanjie, an agro-technician with the department, said that the contest can expand the use of drones in agriculture.