We all have heard great deal about the ever-increasing popularity of Drones across industries, including Agriculture. But how does it actually benefit Agriculture sector? How to choose right kind of drones for farming? Let’s explore about it.
Why Agricultural Drones?
In traditional farming context, farmers spray their fields with fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides and other necessary chemicals manually, which makes it a labour-intensive process. Such a process demands large amount of labour costs and if not done properly, may result in lower crop yields & bad quality produce. Close contact with chemicals may also lead to health hazards.
Whereas, spraying fields with agricultural drones addresses these limits posed by manual spraying. Using drones, farmers can also evenly distribute the fertilizers, eliminating the risk of spraying too much or too less at one part of the field. In addition to that, Drones can cover wide area of fields and manoeuvre through complex terrains which are otherwise hard to reach. It also helps farmers save time & money on chemicals and manpower. Likewise, Agricultural drones can also help in planting seeds and irrigation.
Another exceptional advantage of Agricultural drones is that sensors present in them can provide aerial mapping and imaging. This can prove very useful for monitoring health of crops. There are typically two types of sensors that are used in agricultural drones:
· Visual sensor
· Multi-spectral sensor
Drones equipped with these sensors creates two key maps; RGB (Red Green Blue) maps and NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index). RGB maps provide a birds-eye view of the field that allows farmers to conveniently inspect and monitor crops. NDVI on the other hand, helps farmers assess plant health based on the amount of infrared light reflected in an area. Since healthy green plants absorbs most of the red & blue light, resulting in green and much of the infrared light to reflect, this helps in tracking plant health.
Such sensors offer accurate aerial field mapping to gives precise data on vegetation index and other information on plant count, detection of crop diseases, surveillance and monitoring of crops, using which farmers can make informed decisions about fertilization, irrigation, and pest control.
How to choose Agricultural Drones?
Agricultural drones can be categorised into four distinct types based on their water holding capacity:
· 11-Liter capacity
· 15-Liter capacity
· 20-Liter capacity
· 25-Liter capacity
Farmers can select drones that is best suited for their farms according to the requirements of the type of crops they are growing & their purpose of farming. 11-Liter capacity agricultural drones are apt for large farmers, whereas, 15-Liter capacity & 20-Liter capacity is suitable for large scale farmers and custom hiring. 25-Liter capacity agricultural spraying drones are most useful for large service providing enterprise.
Conclusion
Agricultural drones have completely changed the scenario of today’s agricultural practices. Farming practices look a lot different today than what it was just a few decades ago and it will continue to grow in coming years. Use of drones in agricultural fields has made life easy for farmers & agronomists. It has been proven to be a handy tool that can be used in several ways to empower farmers & revolutionize the agricultural industry. Agriculture industry has seen significant growth owing to numerous benefits of drone technology. Agricultural Drones are great to tackle problems like shortage of farm labour and wastage, resulting in better yields, improved quality at lower costs.
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