Exploring agricultural drones: The future of farming is precision agriculture, mapping, and spraying

Drones can have multiple uses in agriculture, from mapping to spraying. Here is a short list of how can drones help in agriculture. Precision agriculture uses information technology to ensure that the crops and soil receive exactly what they need for optimum health and productivity. Drones are an essential tool in precision agriculture, as they allow farmers to constantly monitor crop and livestock conditions by air.

• Mapping: With new drone models, the user only needs to draw around the area he needs to cover as drones come equipped with flight planning software allowing it to follow an automated flight path. The drone automatically takes pictures using onboard sensors and the built-in camera, and uses GPS to determine when to take each shot.
• Cropdusting: Drones can now carry tanks of fertilizers and pesticides in order to spray crops with far more precision than a tractor. This helps reduce costs and potential pesticide exposure to workers who would have needed to spray those crops manually.​

Global Market Insights forecasts that the agricultural drone market size will exceed $1 billion and 200,000 units shipped by 2024. Technological advancements, increased automation, lack of skilled resources as well as the current labor crisis will bolster agricultural drone demand.

This is a list of the best drones on the market, selected by Business Insider:

• senseFly eBee SQ: The company's proprietary eMotion software makes designing a flight plan incredibly simple. The drone boasts the ability to capture 500 acres of footage in a single flight. Price: $10,490
• PrecisionHawk Lancaster 5: This drone features a body more capable of enduring hard landings, a redesigned tail, longer wingspan for greater stability in flight, and an improved flight control. Price: $12,000
• Honeycomb AgDrone: This drone features a 55-minute flying time, with an additional 11 minutes of reserve time that activates as long as there is not too much wind. The wings are made of a durable Kevlar fiber composite. The drone also comes with dual cameras. Price: $10,000
• DJI Matrice 100: Dual batteries in this drone allow for a 40-minute flight time. It also packs the standard suite of DJI systems, such as GPS and flight controller. Price: $3,299

e-Agriculture is organizing a learning activity on drones in agriculture and rural development which is taking place every day from 16 till 27 October as the e-Agriculture team will post new content on the platform and host live events and Q&A’s. Join our learning activity by clicking here!

Source: Business Insider