HACHINOHE, Aomori -- A group of students at an agricultural high school in Aomori Prefecture has been working on a way to artificially pollinate apples with a small drone.
In general, farmers apply pollen to apples' pistils by hand, using a brush or other tools. This is a burden on farmers and one of the reasons why they tend to give up cultivating apples as they get older.
Thinking drones could make pollination work more efficiently, a group of 16 students at Nakui Agricultural High School in Nanbu, Aomori Prefecture, started a pollination experiment in April last year with the cooperation of Toko Tekko Co. of Akita Prefecture, which produces drones for agriculture.
Using a drone experiment for pear cultivation in other prefectures as a reference, the students decided to use an atomizer. They attached the atomizer to a drone to spray a fluid that included pollen and agar on the apples from above the trees. They adjusted the proportion of the substances in the fluid so it would readily attach to pistils.
The students diffused the fluid over 12 apple trees at the school from altitudes of four to five meters in May. It took only five minutes, compared to six hours when done by hand.
The bearing rate, which indicates flowers becoming fruit, was 46 percent on average. According to the division of apples and fruit trees of the Aomori prefectural government, a sufficient bearing rate is about 50 percent to 60 percent.
"I want to improve the method of diffusion to raise the bearing rate and cultivate good-shaped apples," said Saki Funada, a 17-year-old third-year student of the school's cultivation science department.
Cultivation teacher Tadasuke Matsumoto, 35, said, "Pollination with a drone can be adapted to other fruits, such as cherries."
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