What are drones?

Drones, also known as Unarmed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in Agriculture, assist in opening a way to sustainable farming operations. These drones help to smoothen their operations, using data analytics to gain effective insights into their crops. The data collected from the drones are used to accurately plan and make constant improvement. For instance, in crop monitoring, it is easy to utilise the drone data for careful planning and make ongoing improvements.

Drones are now seen as a safer option to be used in mapping difficult areas, such as uneven fields or fields that can be quite risky for operators, compared to other techniques, which are usually carried out on-foot. Besides, drones are particularly useful in keeping track of wide areas of farmland, in determining the most suitable seeding prescriptions. These technologies can be very effective when it comes to natural disasters, such as floods, to assist the farmers to assess the damage across terrains, that are most likely not accessible by foot.

Studies have shown that drone imagery provides a higher quality of accuracy and resolution, even on cloudy days. With the use of drones, agriculture professionals get to increase their efficiency, by capturing high-resolution imageries more quickly than alternative methods. Accurate crop health assessments can be conducted all year round with the assistance of drones.

Photo by Michael Parulava