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Agriculture with Drones: 5 Applications

 

We have heard about how drones participate in all kinds of jobs, from film and television recordings, or advertising of all kinds.

Going through applications related to the measurement of land, the monitoring of civil works (Buildings, roads, bridges, among others), and we have even heard of the delivery of packages with Drones, which although it is still in the initial stages, there is an incredible future from his hand.

Last but not least, we have heard about Drones in Agriculture. How these teams can help us in agricultural and forestry issues, to have more efficient, better quality, safer plantations, etc.

Next, we present the five most outstanding applications in the world of agriculture with Drones, of which if they are of your interest, you can learn to take advantage of them.

drones in agriculture

1. Drones for Irrigation, Fumigation and Sprinkling of Crops

At the time of writing this blog, we had different types of drones for spraying and irrigation on the market.

Equipment that is capable of launching with great precision, the product we want: Water, pesticides, seeds, nutrients, or any mixture with which our crop is better.

There is a big difference between airplanes versus Drones used for these types of applications. Here are some differences:

Aircraft vs Drones for Fumigation and Irrigation

  • Airplanes are designed to cover great distances, while Drones cover much smaller distances and terrain.
  • The design of the airplanes is for range, while that of the Drones for precision, so with drones the irrigation to the areas that is really needed is optimized. The airplanes are used for massive subjects, in which the waste does not represent major problems.
  • The cost of the planes is very high, making them difficult to access, in addition to paying monthly pilots to spray. Drones, despite being expensive, have been dropping their prices significantly and we hope that this will continue. In addition, the maintenance and operator price is significantly lower than that of airplanes.
  • Each of these teams is used on different occasions. Although we could see them as competition, the reality is that they are a complement for different situations, each with its advantages and disadvantages.

2. Drones for Multispectral Image Analysis: Plantation Health

One of the most important and interesting uses of Drones in Agriculture is to verify the characteristics of the plantation, through the analysis of the images that we can obtain from them.

One of the most interesting ways in which we can use Drones is from what we call a false color map. They are a representation of the level of light reflectance, which we obtain when we use a multispectral sensor in our Drone, and we take images of the crop that we have.

All this translates into a beautiful image, on which we can identify with the help of the experts in that plantation, what is the process to follow. In addition, to put at our disposal detailed places where we can do field reconnaissance, and verify the conditions of the areas identified in our image, as follows:

3. Drones to carry out Forest or Plantation Inventories

Technology in the forestry industry has had a long history. From the inception of waterway transport to forest railways, to the first portable chainsaw, the industry has never been strangers to the search for new technological advances.

And when it comes to monitoring plant health, conducting inspections, and improving safety, some forestry companies have started exploring the use of drones in their operations. Many of them have realized its benefits.

Aerial images captured by Drones create a complete and detailed image of the forest, providing comprehensive information and analysis. Managers of these forests have discovered that operations could be executed from a single location, sending a drone to photograph the entire surface.

This automated process reduces unnecessary labor hours and overall operating costs. For companies that have started exploring Drone technology as a vital forestry tool, a complete set of solutions has been presented to them:

  • Aerial photographic vision in difficult to inspect areas.
  • Measure volumes quickly, while providing accurate tree counts.
  • Mapping of harvest units, and conducting post-harvest waste assessments.
  • Assess the health and damage of plants.
  • View 3D images of forests.

Drones can also be used to provide early fire detection, virtually eliminating the risk of losing thousands of hectares to sudden wildfires.

4. Drones for Plantation Growth

Planning

Analyzing the yield of past crops is easy using historical seasonal maps. They allow farmers to identify which seed hybrids and chemical varieties they will buy next spring.

By mapping their fields several times, a year, farmers can follow the progress of the field and understand potential risks, to help plan for the upcoming seasons.

Fertility

Drones can also help predict an agricultural company's income potential, and overall fertility, by comparing historical images from the season, with the previous year's yield and soil maps.

When planning your variable rate nitrogen prescription, the use of seasonal imaging, along with additional layers of data, will ensure that you take into account all possible variables for the most profitable fertility plan.

Plantation

Once the seeding begins, Drones technology becomes especially useful. Drones fly to analyze plant counts and spawn, simplifying operations and eliminating human error.

This type of analysis allows the user to assess the quality of the plantation at the beginning of the planting season, and quantify the areas that may need to be replanted as soon as possible.

5. Drones for Crop Monitoring and Tracking

A professional Drone can provide the necessary tools to give us a holistic view of our entire plantation.

It allows us to see month by month, week by week or even day by day, changes that might be imperceptible to the human eye, but that do not escape the eye of a processing program. By identifying these unexpected changes, professionals in the specific field of action can take action and anticipate problems.

Data from different years are also very useful, as they show the accumulated experience, and allow an increasingly accurate forecast of how the crop will grow.

This is only possible with constant monitoring, where one of the most used tools is precisely Drone technology.

To finish, we leave you three advantages as a summary, if you are thinking about the possibility of using Drones for agricultural purposes:

Advantages of Drones in Agriculture

Explore your fields in less time

Drones provide an immediate snapshot of a field; in a fraction of the time it would take to explore it on foot.

Cover hundreds of hectares in a single flight, capturing data that helps detect and identify crop variability and stress areas.

Capture Accurate Data That Drive Decisions and Actions

Use Drone data to generate maps and recipe plans, focusing treatments more efficiently and reducing costs, obtaining information that complements other agronomic tools.

For example, for soil / leaf sampling, instead of random sampling, Drones data can direct you to the best places to sample, saving time and money.

Efficiently Track Crops Over Time, for production and research.

Track how crops progress from planting to harvest. Accurately monitor fields for other research applications and phenotyping. Regularly capturing calibrated data from professional multispectral sensors provides information on crop health, regardless of lighting changes, giving you the data you need to derive quantitative trends.

If you have doubts, we will answer them, you can write to us through any of our different channels and we will gladly help you.

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