So what is drone?
A drone is a Aerial device which can be remotely handle. It can be easily personalized.
Their use:
Ever since Drone has been invented their application has been wide. From security purposes to entertainment industry, drone has been a multi-tasking tool. Now Drone are also being use in agriculture sector. According to some people, drone are set to dominate agriculture world.
Drones can be easily use in agriculture supply sector as they are easy to handle and cheap, to keep watch on workers, guide trucks, most commonly use as moving camera, etc. But their major purpose is guarding grain stock, keeping eye on field, for spraying fertilizer and pesticides, remotely handling irrigation, for weather analysis, etc.
Personalized agriculture drone:
Drones can be equipped with light weight tool such as sensors or high resolution camera to get image even in cloudy weather to get bird’s-eyes view on farm field. DJI Agras MG-1 (DJI, 2017) drone, can be use to spread liquid fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides. Can easily differentiate between forest land and farm land, can detect crop stage. It can also estimate crop health.
Drones are also being use by insurance company such as skymet for agriculture survey and for accurate estimation of loss. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh government are also using drones for agriculture survey.
UAV facilited drone can be use for farm mapping, better images of farm than satellite data collection and estimating yield of crop. UAV are also actively being use to locate locust outbreak and plague among plants. UAVs are also being use in livestock management and fisheries, especially in scientific research.
Drones are also helpful in planning integrated greenhouse farms, which can help farmer in sudden climate change and provide accurate data.
Drones are much more effective in large farms where it can easily monitor irrigation and regulate water supply in whole land. Sprinkler and drip irrigation can be easily controlled using drone.
DJI-terra is a drone software, which can make digital model and maps using drone data, making it easy to analyze and decision making.
Points to keep in mind:
Drones, their tools and software have to be light weight for them to fly, drones are more effective on large farm land, as fragmented land can be easily manage. Drones should be inexpensive, as farmers won’t spend more on such far fetched technology. Drones should be easy to handle and keep, as farmers are not much invested to understand techniquel part. As drones work on batteries and chargers their life time is short. A nice branded quality drone will not last more than five hours. It constantly need charging or changing of batteries. If the drone is damaged, it needs technical mind to repair it, repairing is mostly hard as it is a new technology, not many people know about it. Farmer or person handling drone has to have a basic knowledge about drones.