At a navel orange grove deep in the mountains of Central China's Hubei province, a drone lifts a basket of oranges under the control of pilot Guo Xingcheng. From the hilltop grove to a roadside collection area, the flight takes just one minute.

In Yandengbao village, Zigui county, many oranges grow on steep slopes and in the past, picking and transporting the fruit meant hard physical labor.

"It used to take about 40 minutes to carry nearly 50 kilograms of oranges down the mountain along a two-kilometer route," Guo said.

Now a drone can carry about 100 kilograms per trip and transport about 25,000 kilograms in a day, he said, making the work five to six times more efficient than carrying the fruit by hand.

Guo first learned about agricultural drones by chance in 2022. He received training, obtained a pilot's qualification and tested the technology in his family's grove before officially taking up drone flying as a career, and he said his success has attracted over 1,000 young drone pilots to return home to start their own businesses.

Zigui county has an orange planting area of 400,000 mu, or about 26,667 hectares, producing more than one million tonnes of fruits a year, generating over 25 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) in output value.

In 2025, drones transported more than 700,000 metric tons of navel oranges across the county, with operations covering about 300,000 mu (20,000 hectares) of groves, said Li Li, an official with Zigui's Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau.

The county now has 1,050 agricultural drones and more than 2,600 drone pilots, Li said.

He described the county's navel orange as "on the tree today, on the road tomorrow and on consumers' tables the day after".

New technology has eased the workload of farmers, said Wang Hongzhen, who owns a seven-mu orange grove in Yandengbao.

Most fruit growers in the village are over 65, Wang said, adding that drone transport has reduced physical labor and the cost.

(Source: China Daily)