Drone technology has been introduced in a Chinese-run rice farm in Uganda as a tool to modernize the agriculture and improve the technical skills of local youth.

As the first professionally-trained agricultural drone pilot in Uganda, Herbert Agaba learned the drone flight skills in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was rampant and made thousands of people jobless.

"The Chinese trained me basic skills about agricultural drone management, maintenance and operation that was year 2020 during COVID-19 times," said Agaba.

The automated agriculture drone-spraying project is a new technology in Uganda, in which the Chinese have been sharing skills among the Ugandan youth.

There are more than 1,000 employees on this rice farm owned by by Zhong Industries Limited and none of them lost jobs during the pandemic, according to the local manager Isaac Ocen.

Ocen said many youths who leave the Chinese-run rice farm, go on to start their gardens because they have gained the skills on how to plant and harvest the crop.