According to PwC's analysis, the benefits of using drones to solve problems in all industries exceeded $127 billion. Among them, agriculture is one of the ideal areas for the use of drones, and it will meet the enormous challenges with the help of drones. In 2050, the global population is expected to reach 9 billion. In the past 40 years, the level of agricultural consumption is expected to increase by about 70%. The increase in extreme weather conditions has further hampered the development of productivity.

UAV high-tech transformation agriculture involves six farming methods

Farmers must learn to use innovative strategies to achieve farming tasks and increase crop yields while focusing on sustainable development. To achieve the above points, in addition to the use of drones, close cooperation with the government, technology and the entire industry can not be underestimated.

UAV technology will transform agriculture into high-tech through real-time data collection and processing. We expect drones to bring in $32.4 billion in value in the agricultural sector. The following are the six farming methods that will be involved in land and air drones:

1. Soil and land analysis

Drones can provide guidance at the beginning of crop planting, and they can present a 3D analysis of the early soil, which is beneficial for the overall planning of the planting. After sowing, soil analysis provides data support for subsequent irrigation and nitrogen content management.

2, planting

The UAV seeding system launched by the company has increased productivity by 75% and reduced costs by 85%. These drones project seeds and nutrients together into the soil to provide the nutrients needed for plant growth.

3. Crop spraying

Remote measuring devices such as ultrasonic echo or Lidar (for light detection and measurement) lasers allow the drone to make adjustments based on changes in topography and geography to avoid collisions. Finally, the drone can scan the land and spray a certain amount of liquid, adjust the distance from the ground and achieve real-time spraying. This technology greatly increases the efficiency of spraying, while at the same time reducing the amount of chemicals left in the groundwater source to some extent. Experts say airborne spray can be up to 5 times faster than traditional mechanical operations.

4. Crop monitoring

The large land area and low efficiency of crop detection are the major challenges facing agriculture today. Unpredictable weather conditions exacerbate the difficulty of monitoring and therefore cost more risk protection and land maintenance. Previously, as a relatively advanced monitoring method, satellite imagery also revealed its limitations, such as taking pictures in advance, the image can only be shot once a day, and the pixels are not high. In addition, this method is costly and the image quality in cloudy weather is even worse. Today, time-sorted animations show the detailed growth of crops and point to inefficiencies in the work, which in turn provides more crop management.

5. Irrigation

Drones equipped with hyperspectral, multispectral detectors or thermal sensors automatically detect areas of drought or areas that need irrigation. In addition, once crops begin to grow, drones can also test their vegetation index as well as thermal energy markers.

6, crop health testing

In crop planting, it is important to test their health and whether the tree contains bacterial or fungal infections. By scanning crops with visible light (VIS) and near-infrared light (NIR), drones can detect which plants reflect abnormal green and near-infrared light. This information is integrated to form a multi-spectral image that tracks plant growth and their health, and timely feedback can save a whole orchard. In addition, if such diseases are discovered, plants can be treated and supervised as soon as possible. These two functions enhance the ability of plants to fight disease. For crops that fail to survive, farmers can also calculate relative losses and choose appropriate insurance policies.

What is the outlook?

As we look to the future, more drones will emerge in the unmanned field, they will unify the task of agricultural supervision, and the land and air drones can be responsible for data collection and other tasks.

In this case, what is the factor in delaying the use of drones in agriculture? In addition to the difficulty of applying it to all walks of life, there are also drone safety factors, privacy and insurance issues. One of the big concerns is the reliability of its collection of agricultural data. In order to solve this problem, the drone industry will introduce more sophisticated cameras and sensors, and develop drones with shorter training time and smarter.

(Original title: Six directions for the drone agricultural revolution)