Caring for Soil with Drones: Socio-Technical Practices, Multispecies Relations, and Alternative Farming in Rural China

My thesis research examines how ecological farmers in rural China use and adapt drone technologies as part of everyday practices of soil care, ecological maintenance, and livelihood reproduction. While agricultural drones in China are associated with state-led modernisation, efficiency, and smart agriculture, my research contrasts these dominant narratives with a case study of drone tinkering for ecological farming practices. Drawing on the anthropology of technology and science and technology studies (STS), my research approaches drones as part of socio-technical assemblages involving human labour, plants, microbial life, and market relations. Farmers' practices are analysed as forms of care that seek to maintain and repair damaged ecological relations, while remaining entangled in capitalist food markets.