What you missed in Agriculture: Drones

Estimated Reading Time: 1 minute, 57 seconds

Summary

• Trees are good for farms... And we have more research to prove it!

• Drones in agriculture

• When mom made pizza rolls

What you missed in Agriculture

• Soli Organic Raises $120 million for herbs grown indoor in soil: Soil Organic does vertical farming with soil. This cuts down the cost of production by up to 30%.

• Trees are good for Farms!: Indigenous trees have the potential to deal with the problem of drought and other soil related problems. Agroforestry is a way to stabilise crop growing regions from desertification and soil erosion.

• Is carbon trading the next step towards decarbonisation?: As CO2 prices increase due to Carbon Agreements, businesses will have to change their production and consumption habits to remain profitable

Use of Drones in Agriculture

Drones are coming, everywhere. We've seen them as recreational toys, military tools and now in agriculture. Precision agriculture has become more and more prevalent throughout the agricultural sphere. It involves using technology to increase precision, and decrease the cost of operating fields. Drones are an important tool in the movement towards precision agriculture.

Drones have a low upfront cost and low maintenance costs. They can quickly move across fields and precisely manage fields. In the future they may even be automated to tend fields on their own.

nstead of running a tractor across a full field, drones allow farmers to precisely apply mixtures to the right areas. Drones even shepherd herds through fields. Persistent and efficient techniques are important to growers, because they can allow less input usage and higher quality products.

Another use is to evaluate fields at a high (literally) level. Drones can gather image data that can help farmers take the guesswork out of their crop.

These datapoints can include the temperature on a field, to predict malnourishment and drought. Farmers can document crop damage, and file better insurance claims. With additional spectral data farmers can pinpoint fertiliser usage.

Drones do however face some challenges. They have an operator risk, battery life issues and payload limitations. The largest risk is farmers not taking advantage of the opportunities drones present. There are multiple studies that indicate farmers need ease of use and proven effectiveness to adopt new technologies, which drones are evolving towards.

However, more and more research has gone into the fields. Drones have grown both on a recreational and commercial basis and will continue to find their place in agriculture.

When mom made pizza rolls