The Pros and Cons of Agriculture drone

The number of farmers adopting the use of drones in their farms is growing steadily. Drones offer them a low-cost aerial camera platform. This way farmers can cost-effectively monitor their crops.

There are lots of benefits to drones in agriculture, however, just like any other technology, drones have their pros and cons that farmers ought to be aware of before they go buying one.

Pros

Planting

Though not quite prevalent just yet, some manufacturers have come up with systems able to shoot pods containing seeds and plant nutrients into the already prepared soil. This profoundly reduces the planting costs.

Monitoring

One of the largest obstacles in farming is inefficient crop monitoring of vast fields. This challenge is made worse by the rise of unpredictable weather patterns which lead to increased risks and maintenance costs. Drones can be used to develop time series animations to show precise crop development which reveals production inefficiencies hence better crop management.

Drones for Agriculture Spraying

Drones can adjust altitude with a change in topography and geography. Their ability to scan and modulate its distance from the ground enables them to spray the correct amount of the desired liquid evenly in real time. Spraying using drones has also proven to be faster than other traditional methods.

Irrigation

Drones equipped with thermal, hyper-spectral, or thermal sensors can identify the parts of the field have become dry.  This way the identified areas can be attended to promptly making irrigation precise and timely.

Health Assessment

Some drones are capable of scanning crops using visible and near infrared light, identify the amounts of green and near-infrared light reflected by the plants. This data is then used to develop multi-spectral images which depict the plant health. These images can be used to track crop health and to monitor remedied administered if any sickness is discovered.

Ease of Deployment

Unlike traditional aircraft, the drones are easier and cheaper to deploy.

 

Cons

Flight Time and Flight Range

There are some problems with drones in agriculture. Most of the drones have a short flight time of between 20 minutes to an hour. This makes limits the acreage that it can cover for every charge. The flight range also limits the radius that can be cover during every flight time. Drones that can offer longer flight time and longer range are relatively costlier.

Initial Cost of Purchase

Drones with the features that qualify them for use in the agricultural are quite costly. This is mostly so for fixed wing drones which could cost up to $25000 (PrecisionHawk’s Lancaster). Purchasing drones equipped for use in agriculture could prove costly in the short run but worthwhile in the long run

Weather Dependent

Drones are much more prone to climatic conditions, unlike traditional aircraft. If it is very windy outside or rainy outside you may not be able to fly them.

Knowledge and Skill

The images require analysis by a skilled and knowledgeable personnel for them to translate to any useful information. This means an average farmer without these skills may need training or may be forced to hire a skilled personnel conversant with the analysis software to help out with the image processing.

Drone technology keeps improving every day. With many manufacturers entering the industry, it’s hoped that the cost of the drones and the accompanying equipment will reduce. Limitations like flight time and range are also expected to be solved by an improvement in technology. These improvements will ensure that farmers reap more from the use of drones.

4 rotors plant protection UAV 10KGS agriculture drone sprayer

Intelligent Agriculture is the trend of all over the world. And the intelligent drone act as a important role in this world plan.

Agriculture spraying drone can replace the traditional pesticide sprayer and it's speed is 40times of the traditional sprayer. It will save 90% water and 30%-40% pesticide. Small droplet diameter make the pesticide more well-distribute and improve the effect. At the same time, it will make the people faraway from the pesticide and reduce the pesticide remain of the crop.