WHY USE AGRICULTURE DRONES? MAIN BENEFITS AND BEST PRACTICES
Although unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) a.k.a drones had initially been built for military purposes, they are now widely applied in a number of industries. With the market for agriculture drones reaching $1,3 billion, agriculture is now the second largest industry after construction in terms of drone adoption.
The future of drones in agriculture looks promising: by 2026, analysts claim, the market for agriculture drones is set to reach $6,52 billion, expanding at 31, 4% CARG. The demand continues to grow as the costs of drones decrease and as drone software in agriculture gets increasingly sophisticated.
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Why use agriculture drones?
So, what can drones do for agriculture? The answer to this question boils down to increasing overall efficiency, but there’s more to drones than just that. As drones become an integral part of smart (or ‘precision’) farming, they help farmers deal with a wide range of challenges and reap a great number of benefits.
Most of these benefits stem from eliminating any guesswork and reducing uncertainty. The success of farming normally depends on a plethora of factors farmers have little or no control over: weather and soil conditions, temperature, precipitation, etc. The key to efficiency lies in their ability to adjust, which is impacted by a large extent by the availability of accurate nearly real-time info.
Here’s where the use of drone technology can truly become a game changer. By gaining access to a vast pool of data, farmers can increase crop yields, save time, reduce expenses and act with unparallelled accuracy and precision.
How drone technology works?
To gain a better understanding of drones use in agriculture, let’s take a closer look at drone technology. Typically, a drone construction includes propulsion and navigation systems, GPS, sensors and cameras, programmable controllers as well as equipment for automated flights.
The technology used for UAV drones for agriculture are built in a way that enables them to capture more accurate information than airplanes and satellites are capable of collecting. Drone-based agritech software processes the collected data and delivers it in an easy-to-read format.
All in all, the data collection process in the case of agriculture drones includes four logical steps:
1. Indicating flight parameters: Outlining and evaluating the surveillance area and uploading GPS info into the drone navigation system.
2. Autonomous flights: A UAV drone carries out a flight pattern according to the pre-established parameters and collects the required data.
3. Data upload: The drone submits the data it has captured for processing and analysis.
4. Information output: After the data has been processed, it is sent to farmers in a readable format. The report contains insightful info which accounts for better farm management decisions.
Things to consider before developing drone solutions in agriculture
Drones are accessible and relatively inexpensive, yet there are important things to take into account before implementing drone solutions. The steps involved in transforming your farm into a drone-enhanced agritech business include the 5 following aspects:
1. Determining goals
Agriculture drones have a range of applications: field and crop monitoring, seed planting, cattle surveillance, etc. What do you want them to do? Determine the core farm processes that you believe would benefit most from using drones.
2. Studying the legislation
Better yet, hire a lawyer to take care of all legal aspects involved in commercial drone usage. These will vary depending on your country or state of residence. Register your drone if you have to and find out which types of drones you can legally use in your area. Also, carefully study security instructions on flying your drone, since you will be held accountable in case of accidents.
3. Deciding on the drone hardware
Based on the tasks you want to accomplish, it is necessary to decide which hardware to equip your drone with. For example, for crop health monitoring, your drone will need an infrared camera. If you want it to estimate soil condition, it will need appropriate sensors, etc. In a nutshell, your drone capabilities will depend on the tasks you have in mind.
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