RICE: let's hear it for the drones

 we grow organic brown rice, which is healthier, but more expensive since a lot of the weeding by hand (instead of using herbicides) and other methods cost more.

But what about the poor who live in cities?

the dirty little secret is that you need cheap rice or other foods (often grown with chemical herbicides and fertilizers) to keep the price down. 

A lot of NGOs pushed organic ideas on Africa, and even influenced countries like Zimbabwe to refuse cheap American grain during their famine because it might contain GM or other modern changes, so the excuse was they were worried about the health of their people: The people of course were dying of infectious diseases because they were malnourished, but never mind. The green ideas in the NGOs and even those associated with churches (yes I am talking to you Pope Francis) triumphed over the need to feed the poor.

but the good news is that China doesn't worry about people getting diabetes or cancer at age 55: They remember starvation is always a danger and are willing to grow hefty crops using modern techniques.

And luckily for Africa, China is there buying farm land and encouraging farmers in these countries to learn how  to grow abundant food to prevent famine.

introducing hybrid rice and modern techniques to increase the yield: including the use of drones to apply pesticides.

Hmmm... we don't use drones yet on our fields, but the IRRI is introducing drone technology here in the Philippines.

Drones serve various agricultural purposes, including irrigation planning, crop health monitoring, damage assessment, soil health analysis, and fertilizer and pesticide application

Right now, this is done by walking through the fields and analyzing if additional minerals or fertilizer is needed. 

and walking through the fields monitoring the crop if problems occur during the rice growing season: weeds, blight, insect infestation, etc.

We still have small farmers with small rice crops, but as the farmers age and sell their land (because their kids prefer other easier jobs) then mechanized farming will start, so that is where the drones come in.

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and of course drones can apply  pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, etc. to fields at a lower price than a farmer doing it by hand.

Increased efficiency and speed, reducing manual labor Precise application, leading to reduced waste and damage to crops Accessibility to difficult or remote terrain Ability to cover larger areas in a shorter period of time Real-time monitoring and data collection for better decision making.