Farmers from Orsha use drones in their work
21-year-old Anton Polyakov from Orsha came to the "Belarus Intellectual" exhibition with a brand-new agricultural drone and innovative proposals. The final-year student of the Belarusian State Academy of Aviation has many ideas! All of them are agriculture-oriented, as Anton is not only a future engineer but also a third-generation farmer.
The head of the family, 68-year-old Viktor Polyakov, is the seventh child in a peasant family. He was born in the Mogilev region and continued his studies in Orsha after school. It was here in the 1990s that he became a farmer. All his ancestors worked in agriculture, so he knew for sure that the land would provide even in the most difficult times. Now Viktor Maksimovich is proud of his son and grandson:
— Investing in your land and seeing the results is inspiring. Last year, the wheat yielded remarkably well. The "Quintus" variety produced over 70 centners per hectare. Was it a joy? Of course. We also grow honey plants – sunflowers, phacelia, and we are considering sweet clover as a green manure. Grasslands are a promising direction, especially now when there is more than enough grain on the market.
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The Polyakovs have plenty of equipment. A small T-16 tractor is not idle; a Lida-1300 grain harvester is waiting for the season at the machinery yard, and three MTZ tractors, two of which are leased, are eager to get into the fields. The farmers say they earn good wages themselves, but development requires investment. As well as financial acumen. A couple of years ago, the Polyakovs installed a grain cleaning machine and earned an extra hundred rubles on each ton of rapeseed.
Yuri has three children. Denis is 18 and a first-year student at Vitebsk Medical University, and his daughter Nastya will start school in the autumn. Yuri Polyakov admits that all their agricultural hopes are pinned on the eldest:
— Doesn't it look like a magician's prop? The capabilities of this 30-liter payload innovation are indeed akin to magic. For me, these devices are also a chance to reach for the sky. I dreamed of civil aviation since the tenth grade, but Belarus does not train such specialists. However, there is a new promising specialty "unmanned aerial systems" – I am in my final year. My knowledge of building flight maps and missions has already come in handy.
As an experiment, the Chinese drone assembled by Anton circled over Bryli in the autumn of 2022. In the current agricultural season, the device is planned to be used on a permanent basis – both for themselves and for hire. There is interest from fellow farmers.
Anton reasons:
— The prospects are very broad, not only in terms of economically efficient spraying of plant protection products and microfertilizers. My proposal to use dronestants in the fight against invasive plants, including the same Sosnowsky's hogweed, has reached the finals of the BRSM youth project "100 Ideas for Belarus".
This is highly relevant for the Vitebsk region, which accounts for the lion's share of hogweed growth in the country. Often, it is impossible for machinery and people to approach the poisonous thickets. What to do? Polyakov proposes to solve the problem from the air. Drones will also be useful for desiccation – drying agricultural crops before harvesting. The young farmer concludes with expertise:
— The result will be even after rain and with waterlogged soil, where machinery is unlikely to enter. This year I will test this option on our fields, which have long been an open book for me.
Anton also began to design and show engineering skills from childhood. As well as learning to work the land, without which he cannot imagine himself. The young man fondly looks at the birch grove outside the mechanical workshop window:
— I planted these trees with my family. In the spring, I watch them rustle their green leaves, and my heart rejoices. This is my place of strength, my home, which I would not trade for any foreign country. I am sure that in Belarus there are incentives and opportunities for development in both the agro-industrial complex and any other field. For me, the trampoline will be my work at "Vitebskoblgaz", where unmanned aerial vehicles are used in two areas at once – gas and agricultural. Recently, serial production of the first Belarusian-Chinese agricultural drones in the CIS has started in the country. So we are aiming for fruitful work – it will be interesting.
Last summer, an educational and practical center for precision agriculture of SKhP "MazolovoGaz" was opened in the village of Buyany, Vitebsk region. The customer of the project was the enterprise "Vitebskoblgaz". A complex of agricultural machinery was purchased for the centerronov, which are needed both for spot processing of fields and for servicing objects of the gas distribution system.
Love for the Land is in the Genes
The Polyakov family and their peasant farm, specializing in crop production, are well-known in the Orsha village of Bryli. They cultivate rapeseed, wheat, and potatoes on 70 hectares. Thirty years ago, they obtained loamy soil for use; five hectares were once occupied by a brick factory. So much effort has been invested to make golden wheat flourish here, essentially from ruins!The head of the family, 68-year-old Viktor Polyakov, is the seventh child in a peasant family. He was born in the Mogilev region and continued his studies in Orsha after school. It was here in the 1990s that he became a farmer. All his ancestors worked in agriculture, so he knew for sure that the land would provide even in the most difficult times. Now Viktor Maksimovich is proud of his son and grandson:
— Interest, love, and respect for the land are hereditary. This is our strength, our foundation. For me, farming is more than a business. I am glad that there is someone to continue the work. My grandson Anton is one of us; he surprised me in a good way. I knew from a young age that aviation could help agriculture: pilots used to be stationed here, spraying fertilizers over the fields. But the fact that such an "aerial" approach is now accessible not only to large farms is real progress.Viktor Maksimovich's son, Yuri, is an engineer who graduated from the Belarusian State Agricultural Academy. He worked in his specialty but at some point became involved in the family business. He admits:
— Investing in your land and seeing the results is inspiring. Last year, the wheat yielded remarkably well. The "Quintus" variety produced over 70 centners per hectare. Was it a joy? Of course. We also grow honey plants – sunflowers, phacelia, and we are considering sweet clover as a green manure. Grasslands are a promising direction, especially now when there is more than enough grain on the market.
The Polyakovs have plenty of equipment. A small T-16 tractor is not idle; a Lida-1300 grain harvester is waiting for the season at the machinery yard, and three MTZ tractors, two of which are leased, are eager to get into the fields. The farmers say they earn good wages themselves, but development requires investment. As well as financial acumen. A couple of years ago, the Polyakovs installed a grain cleaning machine and earned an extra hundred rubles on each ton of rapeseed.
Yuri has three children. Denis is 18 and a first-year student at Vitebsk Medical University, and his daughter Nastya will start school in the autumn. Yuri Polyakov admits that all their agricultural hopes are pinned on the eldest:
— Anton was noticed at the "Belarus Intellectual" exhibition, and they offered him an internship, and now a job at "Vitebskoblgaz" related to drones. But he will remain our first assistant in farming – there is no doubt about that.
More to come
Anton Polyakov carefully opens a large black box with a drone, alongside his father and grandfather. He remarks with a smile:— Doesn't it look like a magician's prop? The capabilities of this 30-liter payload innovation are indeed akin to magic. For me, these devices are also a chance to reach for the sky. I dreamed of civil aviation since the tenth grade, but Belarus does not train such specialists. However, there is a new promising specialty "unmanned aerial systems" – I am in my final year. My knowledge of building flight maps and missions has already come in handy.
As an experiment, the Chinese drone assembled by Anton circled over Bryli in the autumn of 2022. In the current agricultural season, the device is planned to be used on a permanent basis – both for themselves and for hire. There is interest from fellow farmers.
Anton reasons:
— The prospects are very broad, not only in terms of economically efficient spraying of plant protection products and microfertilizers. My proposal to use dronestants in the fight against invasive plants, including the same Sosnowsky's hogweed, has reached the finals of the BRSM youth project "100 Ideas for Belarus".
This is highly relevant for the Vitebsk region, which accounts for the lion's share of hogweed growth in the country. Often, it is impossible for machinery and people to approach the poisonous thickets. What to do? Polyakov proposes to solve the problem from the air. Drones will also be useful for desiccation – drying agricultural crops before harvesting. The young farmer concludes with expertise:
— The result will be even after rain and with waterlogged soil, where machinery is unlikely to enter. This year I will test this option on our fields, which have long been an open book for me.
Anton also began to design and show engineering skills from childhood. As well as learning to work the land, without which he cannot imagine himself. The young man fondly looks at the birch grove outside the mechanical workshop window:
— I planted these trees with my family. In the spring, I watch them rustle their green leaves, and my heart rejoices. This is my place of strength, my home, which I would not trade for any foreign country. I am sure that in Belarus there are incentives and opportunities for development in both the agro-industrial complex and any other field. For me, the trampoline will be my work at "Vitebskoblgaz", where unmanned aerial vehicles are used in two areas at once – gas and agricultural. Recently, serial production of the first Belarusian-Chinese agricultural drones in the CIS has started in the country. So we are aiming for fruitful work – it will be interesting.
IN THE NEWS
Last summer, an educational and practical center for precision agriculture of SKhP "MazolovoGaz" was opened in the village of Buyany, Vitebsk region. The customer of the project was the enterprise "Vitebskoblgaz". A complex of agricultural machinery was purchased for the centerronov, which are needed both for spot processing of fields and for servicing objects of the gas distribution system.