Drones in Agriculture
The drone technology is the new fad. Drones or Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are revolutionizing agriculture, for example the use of remote sensing in agriculture. In essence, the use of drones for Precision Agriculture, farming, pest management and crop management is exploding worldwide.
What has made this technology sweep through easily? Some reasons include:-
Some benefits of Agricultural Drones
- Increased Yields - early detection of crop diseases for example allows farmers to take an early intervention thereby securing their yield.
- Time and Cost Savings - Drones collect data easily and reduce manpower needed
- Return on Investment - according to one source, " drones identify issues, and resolve them quickly, increasing yields"
- Ease of use - they are relatively easy to control and drive
- Integrated GIS Mapping - drones generate data that can be georeferenced and aids in GIS
- Crop Health Imaging - due to high resolution images and infra Red and related technologies, drones are able to detect the crop related diseases.
Agricultural drones in the market
There are various types of drones that are available in the market, and these depend on a number of specifications of what they are intended for. I did a quick search online and discovered the following types (there could be more):-
| AgDrone, Honeycomb |
| eBee SQ: senseFly SA |
| Lancaster 5, PrecisionHawk |
| AGCO |
| UX5 |
Drones facilitate efficiency in agriculture and a new mode of farming has thus emerged - Precision agriculture is a farming management concept based on observing, measuring and responding to inter- and intra-field variability in crops.
So in the future, you see a drone flying, it could be one of the models above.
More information
- Best Drones For Agriculture 2017: The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide
- Six Ways Drones Are Revolutionizing Agriculture
- Trimble UX5 Aerial Imaging Solution for Agriculture