How drones are taking precision agriculture to new heights

For farmers today, it is essential to make the best use of every inch of farmland. New technologies such as drones can help.

Precision agriculture is a good test case for drones in agriculture.

This method is based on working accurately and more efficiently on separate parts of larger fields. By obtaining more precise data, farmers can develop a more granular way of sowing and spraying their crops. But also, to apply fertilisers, pesticides, and other sensitive chemicals.

What is precision farming?

Precision agriculture, as a methodology, involves treating different parts of the same field in unique ways. It allows farmers to divide their land along granular lines and use every square metre in a strategic, intelligent way.

The US Department of Agriculture notes how precision agriculture differs from more traditional mechanised farming. Previous methods of applying fertilisers and pesticides were not precise enough to respond to conditions within parts of a field. Treatments were applied based on the average characteristics of the entire area, which could be inaccurate and wasteful.

However, drones with sensors take more precise measurements on individual plots. This ushers in a new era of smart farming. When farmers spray with precision based on accurate data, crop yields and production increase while wastage decreases.

The USDA compares precision farming to a more traditional form of crop farming and farm management before mechanised agriculture. Farmers then carefully divided fields to treat each segment appropriately. Precision agriculture combines this level of specialisation with modern automation, making everything more efficient.

How do drones make precision agriculture possible?

There are numerous use cases for drones in precision agriculture, especially when you consider that unmanned aerial vehicles can fulfil multiple roles. From more frequent and more accurate aerial surveys to careful spraying of chemicals, an agricultural drone can become an efficiency-enhancing tool for precision agriculture in many ways.

Accurate aerial mapping for precision agriculture

Drones are useful precision agriculture tools for mapping and imaging, even compared to other potential technologies for this task, such as satellite imagery. Drones are better at this than satellites, for example. They are close to the crops, while satellites are high above the ground.

A satellite image, however advanced the camera in question may be, still comes from an orbit around the earth. A drone flying over the field is much closer, and thus offers a much higher image resolution. Moreover, when a farmer uses a satellite image, it can be days old. A drone can provide more up-to-date information, enabling even more accurate fertiliser and pesticide use.

When equipped with advanced sensors, drones can provide multispectral images. This gives users more details about how a particular crop is doing. These cameras capture more information than a standard camera, including in the near-infrared band. By using light that is invisible to the naked eye, these cameras can help farmers create accurate drought maps and really give crops the attention they need.

Multispectral maps are not the only kind of aerial photos that are better when taken by a drone. Standard maps in red-green-blue (RGB) format show farmers how the crop is growing. For precision farming purposes, it pays to have these photos taken by drones rather than satellites. The much higher resolution per pixel provides a more accurate and nuanced picture of crop conditions, allowing for more customised precision farming strategies.

Precise aerial spraying and seeding with agricultural drones

Drones can serve as the proverbial eye in the sky for farmers, but they can also play a more direct role in precision agriculture. Because a drone can follow a careful flight plan over a field, it can also carry out seeding or spraying operations. Some versatile spreading systems can perform multiple roles, allowing farmers to seed their fields, sow prairie grasses or spread chemicals in precisely chosen areas.

Today’s drones are remarkably versatile and energy efficient. For example, a battery-powered spraying drone can be fully charged in minutes rather than hours, allowing farmers to get more productive time out of them over the course of a day. By allowing drones to spray and seed around the clock, more useful hours can effectively be added. And the manual effort required to operate these devices is remarkably low.

The use of drones in the precision application of chemicals such as pesticides is an important development for the future of agriculture. The use of smaller quantities of these agents, in places where they are most needed, can support compliance with regulations calling for a reduction in the use of pesticides.

In areas where regulations allow drones to operate outside the line of sight (BVLOS), spray drones can prove particularly effective. Deploying a fleet of drones to spray large areas with seeds or chemicals could be a powerful application in agriculture soon, as aviation authorities consider the future of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Which drone systems should technically-minded farmers look for?

If you want to use one or more drones on your farm, you need to select high-quality precision farming equipment that suits your needs.

In recent years, the status quo of precision farming technology has changed for the better: new drone models and payloads from equipment manufacturers have been designed with specific agricultural use cases in mind. Here are just a few of the hardware configurations that can bring futuristic precision farming methods into the present.

• Drones with multispectral imaging: this provides an accurate aerial image beyond the visible spectrum. This drone simultaneously takes standard RGB images and a NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index) to get useful information about certain parts of the field. The camera is accurate to the centimeter. The drone can then be programmed and positioned, even in areas without a strong internet connection, using mobile geographical positioning stations.
• Spray drones: follow the information gathered by an imaging drone. They use their aerial perspective to apply chemical agents to fields accurately and with a high degree of automation. Drones developed specifically for agriculture, such as the Agras T30, are capable of autonomous flight in many different agricultural environments. They navigate via omnidirectional radar. In addition to effective software and reliable flight systems, these drones are equipped with optimized spraying and spreading systems for the precise application of chemicals or even the distribution of seeds.
• GPS software suites: the software tools that organise data and help farmers use it practically. A Geographic Information System (GIS) such as the DJI Terra mapping software, for example, builds accurate 2D and 3D models of fields. In combination with an NDVI vegetation index, farmers can create prescription maps for the automated operation of drone spraying machines.
• Task management software platforms: the use of reliable task and device management systems is essential for drone operations engaged in precision farming. Using a software platform designed for agriculture will immediately bring more value to your drone operations. This is done, for example, by using workflows designed from needs rather than functionality. Device management is not only a cornerstone of precision farming today. It will also become a cornerstone of more heavily automated operations in the future as more drone operators gain the ability to work BVLOS.

What is the future of drones as precision farming technology?

As with many other drone applications, such as long-distance delivery, one of the main hurdles is not technical but regulatory. Drones have hardware and software capabilities to operate BVLOS. A relaxation of aviation rules would therefore allow them to automatically cover more areas.

The same applies to other tactics such as “swarming” – driving multiple vehicles by a single driver. Usually, exemptions are granted for operators to use this feature in a single area. However, according to Commercial Drone Professional, the tide may be turning. One operator has been granted the ability to use spray formations with three drones anywhere in the continental United States. The company sees this as an opportunity to solve a labour shortage by helping each operator cover more area per hour than was previously possible.

Drones are increasingly used in agricultural environments. They can take on many tasks that help farmers better manage and optimise their crops. For example, even before planting, the farmer can generate 3D contour maps via GIS so that he can place the crops more strategically. A pass by an imaging drone will help a farmer make crop yield estimates for insurance purposes while also assessing the irrigation and soil moisture status of each part of the field.

Farmers with grazing cattle can even track the position of their herds using drone cameras. By finding more uses for drones around the property, these owners can quickly recoup their investment in precision farming technology. Whether a farm is heavily focused on one crop or is diverse in its operations, a drone is a potentially useful piece of technology.

In recent years, there has been rapid development in practical drone functions that can revolutionise precision agriculture. Continued regulatory progress and more widespread adoption of new technology, including drones, will bring efficiency and value to an ever-increasing number of farms. The transformation has already begun.