Aerial Seeding: Rice Farming Turns High-Tech

Seeding PlaneSeeding Plane

With skyrocketing rice prices, California farmers are turning to agricultural aviators to plant over 500,000 acres this spring. The work is dangerous and grueling and requires pilots to fly as low as 30 feet over the ground in single engine planes loaded with a ton of rice seed. Pilots can make up to 100 takeoffs and landings in a single day and use state-of-the-art GPS systems to drop loads with an accuracy of 3 feet.

Source: NY Times

California farmers are

California farmers are turning to agricultural aviators to plant over 500,000 acres this spring. The work is dangerous and grueling and requires pilots to fly as low as 30 feet over the ground in single engine planes loaded with a ton of rice seed.