Drones in Agriculture

While there is no concrete data on the number of drones being used in the agriculture sector, according to an American consulting firm, agricultural drone usage in India will grow at 38.5% CAGR and reach a value of $121.43 million by 2030.

Drone Application in Agriculture

• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones are increasingly becoming useful in crop and livestock management.
• Application: Drones can help in the
  • analysis of soils and drainage
  • crop health assessment
  • application of liquid pesticides, fertilisers and herbicides
  • to monitor the growth of plants
  • detect disease stress
  • monitor field temperature
  • spray pesticides or fertilizers at desired locations on the field

Why is there this shift?

• The stagnation of the prices of produce, followed by the mass exodus of labourers from agriculture and the consequent rise in labour wages have all made such mechanisation imminent.

Concerns

• One such concern with drone usage has been about the aerial spraying of harmful pesticides. It can result in contamination of soil and water.
• Known as pesticide drift, experts fear that drone-based application of chemicals for farming could spread to non-target areas, contaminating water bodies, soil and even human settlements nearby. 
• With the advent of drones, unemployment can increase.

Emerging Agriculture Technologies

• Agriculture Sensors: These sensors can detect moisture and nitrogen levels. This information can be used to determine when to water and fertilize rather than rely on a predetermined schedule.
• Weather Tracking: Drones, remote sensors, and satellites gather 24/7 data on weather patterns in and around the fields. This provides farmers with vital information on temperature, rainfall, soil, humidity.
• Satellite Imaging:It allows for real-time crop imagery. It lets a farmer examine crops as if he or she were standing there without actually standing there. Reviewing images on a weekly basis can save a farm a considerable amount of time and money.
• Pervasive Automation: It refer to any technology that reduces operator workload.
• Minichromosomal Technology:Using minichromosomes, agricultural geneticists can add dozens and perhaps even hundreds of traits to a plant.
• Radio-frequency identification (RFID) Technology: RFID based sensors provide information that can be associated with farming yields.
• Vertical Farming: Vertical farm technology Vertical farming a component of urban agriculture is the practice of producing food in vertically stacked layers.
  • Farmers in all areas can use it to make better use of available land and to grow crops that wouldn’t normally be viable in those locations.
• Blockchain in Agriculture: Blockchain technologies can track all types of information about plants, such as seed quality, and crop growth, and even generate a record of the journey of the plant after it leaves the farm.
• Internet of Things (IOT): The buzz word in precision farming lately has been IOT. In IoT-based smart farming, a system is built for monitoring the crop field with the help of sensors (light, humidity, temperature, soil moisture, etc.) and automating the irrigation system.