Drones are not a new technology in the sector of agriculture within Australia. With the technology moving so fast it obsoletes itself. With companies investing in drone technology to improve efficiencies and effectiveness across agriculture and transportation in the trial period.
Hold on to the remote because drones will be taking off in your neighbourhood.
How can drones help you in agriculture?
You know you have a lot of tasks that you need to do on a daily or weekly basis that would be able to be done by a drone if the appropriate precautions were put in place. PwC outlines the 6 ways that drones will impact on the agricultural industry both aerial and ground-based. “PwC estimates the market for drone-powered solutions in agriculture at $32.4”
1. Soil and field analysis: Drones can be instrumental at the start of the crop cycle for Australian farmers. By using precise 3-D maps for early soil analysis, useful in planning seed planting patterns. After planting, drone-driven soil analysis provides data for irrigation and nitrogen-level management. This allows you to make the right decision to improve your efficiencies as you don’t want to overdo it in a paddock.
2. Planting: Startups have created drone-planting systems that achieve an uptake rate of 75 percent and decrease planting costs by 85 percent. These systems shoot pods with seeds and plant nutrients into the soil, providing the plant all the nutrients necessary to sustain life.
3. Crop spraying: Distance-measuring equipment—ultrasonic echoing and lasers such as those used in the light-detection and ranging, or LiDAR, method—enables a drone to adjust altitude as the topography and geography vary, and thus avoid collisions. Consequently, drones can scan the ground and spray the correct amount of liquid, modulating distance from the ground and spraying in real-time for even coverage. The result: increased efficiency with a reduction in the number of chemicals penetrating into groundwater. In fact, experts estimate that aerial spraying can be completed up to five times faster with drones than with traditional machinery.
4. Crop monitoring: Vast fields and low efficiency in crop monitoring together create farming’s largest obstacle. Monitoring challenges are exacerbated by increasingly unpredictable weather conditions, which drive risk and field maintenance costs. Previously, satellite imagery offered the most advanced form of monitoring. But there were drawbacks. Images had to be ordered in advance, could be taken only once a day, and were imprecise. Further, services were extremely costly and the images’ quality typically suffered on certain days. Today, time-series animations can show the precise development of a crop and reveal production inefficiencies, enabling better crop management.
5. Irrigation: Drones with hyperspectral, multispectral, or thermal sensors can identify which parts of a field are dry or need improvements. Additionally, once the crop is growing, drones allow the calculation of the vegetation index, which describes the relative density and health of the crop, and show the heat signature, the amount of energy or heat the crop emits.
6. Health assessment: It’s essential to assess crop health and spot bacterial or fungal infections. By scanning a crop using both visible and near-infrared light, drone-carried devices can identify which plants reflect different amounts of green light and NIR light. This information can produce multispectral images that track changes in plants and indicate their health. A speedy response can save an entire orchard. In addition, as soon as a sickness is discovered, farmers can apply and monitor remedies more precisely. These two possibilities increase a plant’s ability to overcome the disease. And in the case of crop failure, the farmer will be able to document losses more efficiently for insurance claims.
We spoke with Fiona Lake on the podcast and you will be able to listen to the episode on how she created the Drone Academy over here 30 years of working within the industry. With the ability to use drones to save on costs for herself instead of hiring a helicopter has allowed her to pilot her own business within Australian agriculture.
Visit Fiona Lake’s website to learn more about drone use in agriculture.
