How Can Drones Be Used In Agriculture?
The versatility of drones and their sophisticated sensors enables farmers to utilise the technology for a number of reasons. These include:
- Crop Monitoring: Drones monitor crops accurately and more cheaply than traditional methods and offer key insights into crop development, as well as highlighting inefficient and ineffective practices.
- Soil and Field Analysis: Drones can produce 3D maps, quickly and cheaply, which help farmers make important decisions about seed-planting pattern design and nitrogen-level management, for example.
- Health Assessment: Drones can capture multispectral data to help farmers gather key insights into crop health. Such early intervention is crucial to remedy any issues.
- Irrigation: Drones equipped with monitoring equipment can identify areas of a field experiencing hydric stress (lack of water). Thermal sensors provide crucial information, allowing targeted diagnosis of areas receiving too much or too little water.
- Aerial Planting: Drones can fly over a potential planting zone to monitor the best areas for growth. They can then drop biodegradable pods, filled with seed and nutrients, into the ground.
- Herd Management: Farmers are deploying drones to monitor livestock. In some cases, drones with loudspeakers, like the agr drone are used for animal movement, playing a pre-recorded dog bark. Farmers say this method puts less stress on the herd.
- Crop Spraying: Crops can cover large areas quickly, applying liquids with great precision.
- Insurance: Drones can play a key role in insurance, at both the pre-and-post-claim stage. Using a drone helps for site inspection, claims decisions, fraud prevention, and risk management.
