Greener way to grow rice

Taking to the sky: A large drone carrying fertiliser flies over Van’s rice fields in Long An province. — AP

There is one thing that distinguishes 60-year-old Vo Van Van’s rice fields from a mosaic of thousands of other emerald fields across Long An province in southern Vietnam’s Mekong Delta: It isn’t entirely flooded.

That and the giant drone, its wingspan similar to that of an eagle, chuffing high above as it rains organic fertiliser onto the knee-high rice seedlings billowing below.