Nileworks Inc.'s automated drone flies over rice plants, spraying pesticide while diagnosing growth of individual rice stalks, during a demonstration in Tome, Miyagi prefecture Japan August 20, 2018. REUTERS/Yuka Obayashi
TOME, Japan: The next generation farmhand in Japan's ageing rural heartland may be a drone.
For several months, developers and farmers in northeast Japan have been testing a new drone that can hover above paddy fields and perform backbreaking tasks in a fraction of the time it takes for elderly farmers.
