Drones are becoming increasingly important in agriculture and in these modern days, more and more farmers are considering purchasing a drone. In fact, farmers are now turning to high-level drone technology that can provide them with fast and efficient solutions.
The agricultural industry is now embracing drone technology and using these advanced tools to transform the modern farming. The use of drone technology in agriculture is currently helping agricultural businesses meet the changing and growing demands of the future. Moreover, high-tech drones allow farmers, and the drone pilots that operate them, to increase efficiency in certain aspects of the farming process, from crop monitoring to planting, livestock management, crop spraying, irrigation mapping, and more.
According to a recent report by Markets and Markets, the agriculture drones market is expected to grow from US $1.2 billion by 2019 to US $4.8 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of 31.4%. The pressure on global food supply due to growing world population and increase in venture funding for the development of agriculture drones are a few of the key factors driving the growth of this market.
Importance of drones in agriculture
The use of drones in precision agriculture continues to evolve as the industry matures, with new technologies making it easier to complete difficult and time-consuming tasks while also reducing agricultural costs. Improvements in drone software and increased affordability have further driven their wider adoption. Let’s now explore more specific ways drones can be used in agriculture.
Crop yield
According to Justin Cunningham, Hitec Commercial Solutions, LLC Drone Sales Manager, the value of drones in the agricultural industry is increasing exponentially. In the past, most farmers needed to use a full-scale aircraft which is extremely expensive and not an efficient use of time or money.
“Now, drones are able to quickly deploy when needed, provide higher quality data at a fraction of the cost and allow the farmer or land owner to grow with technology while improving crop yield,” he adds.
Remote sensing
Drones play a key role in determining crop yield and assessing crop health through NDVI imagery. In Africa, they help monitor deforestation, track locust swarm movements, and support disaster management, according to Mirjam Bäumer, Microdrones Marketing Manager.
With reference to Nikita Prokofev, Head of agriculture at Geoscan Ltd., nowadays, there are two main applications for remote sensing drones: land management and multispectral mapping for variable rate fertilization.
i. Land management
Land managers measure the position of each field boundary and calculate the area to support land management decisions. They use this information for resource planning because they base the amounts of seeds, fertilizers, water, and labor on the exact arable land area.
At this stage, they also build elevation maps, which help improve water management. Farmers and agronomists apply variable rate application (VRA), although it requires compatible machinery such as sprayers and spreaders. VRA forms part of precision agriculture, which has repeatedly proven effective under different conditions and across various crops.
The method is straightforward: farmers apply fertilizers according to crop needs and avoid applying them in zones where vegetation is non-viable or absent. To achieve this, they create detailed maps of plant requirements that identify and delineate vegetation zones.
ii. Multispectral mapping
Justin Cunningham , says that, utilization of multi-spectral sensors gives the farmer
the ability to target a specific area in their crop that may need particular attention, measure plant health, generate maps to provide prescribed health if needed and optimize efficiency of fields. The farmer can also use other sensors to quickly assess storm damage, identify any damage to the fencing or infrastructure, determine optimal foraging areas if
they farm livestock, monitor livestock movements and customize surveillance of their property.
“Drones are easy-to-use tools for multispectral mapping. Analysts process the obtained imagery into reflectance maps and then build either vegetation indices or composite maps. They use this data at the classification stage as information on crop health or nitrogen deficiency. Eventually, they export prescription maps and load them into the field computer or controller installed on equipment such as tractors and sprayers,” says Nikita Prokofev.
Crop Surveillance
Matthieu Lefebvre, Wingtra Sales and Business Development Manager argues that, drones can gather more detailed and complete information far more quickly and more cost effectively than satellites, crewed aircraft or conventional ground survey methods. Overseas demand for clean, agricultural products has never been higher and drones can maintain competitiveness despite high costs.
“Agricultural drones can provide farmers with immediate information about soils, plant health, growth rates, fertilizer requirements, weeds, pests and weather damage,” asserts Lefebvre.
Crop spraying
“The crop spraying drone technologies are advancing at a very rapid rate – making farming smarter and more efficient / cheaper,” says Tim Wise of PACSys (PTY) Ltd. “In some cases the drones are capable of more effective applications than the existing methods of application (knapsacks / tractors) thereby enhancing crop production and quality. This means more revenue for the growers and more food for the population,” he complements.
Field data collection
Matthew Davis, Drone Ops Manager at Aerobotics states that, drones are essential in agriculture as they can collect a lot more data points much faster than traditional farming practises. “Drones can cover large amounts of area and with our machine learning, we can provide farmers with actionable data within a couple days of the flight. The cameras that they carry also help offer valuable metrics that health, chlorophyll content, canopy area, tree counts, etc that help identify issues early on and help farmers track growth in their orchards,” he affirms.
What you should lookout for when buying a drone
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 following factors:
Flexibility
“The most important thing to consider is the flexibility needed with the aircraft. No
one wants to have an aircraft that can do only one job or has limited capabilities,” states Justin Cunningham. However, there are multiple factors to consider when purchasing an agricultural-based drone. One needs to consider how much land there is to cover, basic topography, the goal of the aircraft based on overall needs, what type of sensors are required and the overall flexibility of the aircraft on what
type of sensors it can carry, he adds.
Determining goals
Agriculture drones have a range of applications; ranging from field and crop monitoring, seed planting, cattle surveillance, etc. What do you want them to do?
Mirjam Bäumer advises identifying the core farm processes that would benefit most from drone use, such as spraying, spreading, NDVI imagery, topographical surveys, and land tenure mapping. She also highlights the importance of flight conditions, including weather and topography.
Mr. Wise adds that one should also consider the current cost of pesticide application per hectare and whether using drones would be more cost-effective and efficient. Is the pesticide you’re applying registered for aerial application at around 30 liters per hectare? If not, then the drone may not be as effective as other ground application methods (knapsacks, tractors) for higher volume applications.
“I think the most important thing to consider when buying a drone is to what extent you will use it. You can use smaller, cheaper drones for industries like film but in Agriculture we recommend bigger, more industrial drones. When flying for Aerobotics you will need a drone that can carry dual payloads (two cameras). The visual camera also needs to be of a certain quality (15 megapixels) and have geotagging capabilities. The bigger the drone, the more expensive it will be, but you will be able to cover more ground in a day and therefore get paid more,” says Matthew Davis.
Product discovery phase
Matthieu Lefebvre points out that, one need to look out on several factors before using a drone, for instance,
-Safety: Can the drone be operated safely for itself, the pilot and the environment?
– Ease of use and maintain: What are the skills to operate and maintain such advanced technology tool?
– Productivity and accuracy: How fast and accurate is the drone in collecting the agricultural data that are needed?
Automation
Nikita Prokofev explains that automation is essential when deploying drones in agriculture because operators may not be fully trained before their first flight. He also notes that the payload type must align with the drone’s intended operational tasks.
He highlights ease of use as a critical factor, pointing out that their drones are fully automated and can even be delivered without a remote controller. Operators plan flight missions on a laptop, which also serves as a manual control interface when required.
Prokofev further states that payload selection depends on the mission, with his team focusing on remote sensing applications. For this purpose, he identifies two primary platform options: quadcopters and fixed-wing drones equipped with digital still or multispectral cameras. He explains that fixed-wing drones are better suited for large-area surveying, covering approximately 300–700 hectares per hour. In contrast, quadcopters cover smaller areas of about 50–100 hectares per flight but operate at lower altitudes and slower speeds. This capability enables ultra-high ground sampling distance (below 2 cm), making quadcopters the preferred choice for researchers conducting detailed studies.
Caring for the Drone
Mr. Cunningham indicates that, depending on the amount of flight time on the aircraft, agricultural-based drone maintenance is fairly simple. One may need to replace motors, props or other basic parts. You should also refresh the battery after a certain number of flight hours. You may also occasionally update the software, which is easy to do in the field. Overall, keeping the aircraft clean and protected will ensure it lasts for a very long time.
On the other hand, Ms Bäumer is keen on customer support 24/7, Inspection Program every 12 months or 150hr of flight to inspect for damaged and corroded parts, Service Program every 300hr and 900hr to replace motors, payload cables, power plugs, electronic components and arm joints.
Mr. Prokofev recommends that, remote sensing drones, especially electric types, do not require complicated maintenance procedures. Most often, battery health decreases, limiting battery life cycle to approximately two years. Check motors every 80 flights.
According to Mr. Wise, The high resolution cameras that the drones carry help offer valuable metrics such as health, chlorophyll content, canopy area, volume and tree counts which assist farmers with identifying issues at an early stage to ultimately help prevent loss and increase yields.
