Tech Innovations in Precision Agriculture: How Drones and Sensors Make a Difference.
Agriculture is said to be one of the most developed, as far as technology adoption is concerned. Technological innovation has transformed the agricultural industry significantly, the most notable being the precision agriculture concept. The emergence of technology has made farming more efficient, which ultimately increases productivity. Progress in agriculture has mostly been due to invention of machines, drones, and sensors. Such technologies allow farmers to manage their farms more intensively to achieve higher optimum output. This essay will elaborate more on how farming drones and sensors are used and the overall impacts of modern technology on agriculture.
What is Precision Agriculture?
Like other modern farming practices, precision agriculture is data driven and tool intensive. As in all precision agriculture practices, field sensors and drones are essential to maximize profit and minimize environmental damage. Automation, controllers, precision farming satellite imaging, and cloud based technologies are all included in precision agriculture. Instead of a singular farming method for the entire area, multi-cropping, pre-sowing, crop-nourishing strategies are employed to optimize farming.
These years old, globally recognized methods have had their fair share of improvements and changes. These modifications have allowed farms to relay information regarding the health of their soil, moisture levels, weather updates, and other stages of crop growth in real-time. These factors enable more productive decision making and technology implementations.
The introduction of GPS, remote sensing, and variable rate technology marks another important advancement in the technology era of farming. The farmer's ability to manage resources effectively is increased through the aid of these technologies. Tracking the quantities of water, fertilizers, and pesticides that are being applied becomes more efficient. The real-time data that can be gathered through the drone's sensors is equally as valuable. The data can be used for analysis that would increase the efficiency of farming.
How Drones Change The World of Precision Agriculture
The advancement in agriculture greatly reduces the costs and resources required to keep farms under constant supervision. Drones can greatly impact this industry in diverse ways let's have a look.
1. Using Drones As An Advanced Monitoring Technology
The primary role of drones in agriculture involves surveying. With drones, farmers can capture footage of large farms and use it for monitoring crops. Some modern drones are able to capture wavelengths that the human eye can’t view. These multspectrayal captures provide information about the crops nutritional status and helps eliminate problems like dehydration, lack of nutrients and diseases in crops.
Farmers can later spray pesticides, set fertilizers and even irrigate crops that require special care. This practice enables farmers to use less resources while simultaneously aiding in the solving the problems at hand.
2. Water Management and Protection of Natural Resources
If done properly, farming allows water saving and proper application. Regardless, improper irrigation will lead to some crops being overgrown while others are starved, thus affecting everybody and crops differently. Farmers utilize drones to blanket vast areas of land and help them maintain the soil's moisture content by selecting areas where irrigation should happen. Furthermore, farmers deploy sensors for soil moisture which give additional information to drones as moisture maps indicating areas of crops that require more water and those that need less.
Such precise and detail-oriented irrigation practices facilitate that crops do not drown in excess water or are deprived of nourishment, thus, saving water and preventing waterlogging as well as soil erosion.
3. Field Mapping and Planning
Drones help in creating accurate field maps that are crucial for the planning and management of the farm. Drones that are GPS enabled can fly over the farm and capture different maps showing the soil types, moisture levels and overall land structure. This guarantees farmers fully understand all aspects of the field in order to practice target farming.
In bulk harvesting and other rationing processes, such farmers are able to set boundaries for farming zones and practice crop rotation as well as selective fertilizer application. With information on the field, farmers are able to be more productive, especially with the assistance of drones.
4. Yield Prediction and Harvesting
Drones can capture critical information that will help a farmer in the planning for the harvesting period and even help in crop yield prediction. Farmers can advantage from the crops during the harvest and optimize on the crops yield by planning the best time to harvest as well as how much the crop yields.
Farmers now have the ability to know the best time to harvest the crops for each growth stage which increases the productivity of both machines and workers on the field saving money at the same time.
Like UAVs, drones can be handy in checking the state of crops. This helps the farmer ascertain the value of the produce and assists in crop management.
The Importance of Sensors in the Growing of Precision Agriculture Technology.
Farmers have reliance on farm sensors devices that provide a part of the farm and take pictures that show the crops and the condition of the soil and weather. With all the information, farmers can ensure that all parameters required for proper agriculture are in place making it easier to manage resources. In this regard, let us look at some of the commonly used farming sensors and their impacts.
1. Soil Sensors
Follow the saying, “Agriculture is Life”. Like many sayings, the one depicting that agriculture is impossible to achieve without planting the “healthy soils” first starts wit “monitoring soil health.” To keep pace with the growing demand in maintaining healthy soil, agriculture sensors which monitor soil moisture, temperature, ph, and nutrition are crucial in. Analytics requiring far less human intervention than current practices can be proven in optimal crop growth.
The devices meant for detecting moisture and minerals in the soil makes it easy to monitor moisture and nutrients in the soil. These devices ensure that only the optimal amount of water is used during farming so that it is most beneficially absorbed and these devices can also mitigate nutrient deficiency by allowing sufficient fertilizers to be applied in the correct zones.
2. Weather Sensors
Sowing and harvesting are important to farmers, but so is the weather along with competition. Farmers can now track rainfall, temperature, humidity, and wind with weather sensors. This information is important for deciding the quantity of water to be used, the needed pesticides, and the optimal times for harvesting.
Farmers have also been able to gauge available frosts and impending rains, which helps them decide on the measures to put in place to safeguard the crops. Wetter monitoring helps farmers to be ready for any changes that may occur and create suitable adjustments to mitigate any potential threatening impacts.
3. Crop Sensors
While everything from drones to tractors can survey the farmlands, crop sensors makes it possible to keep track of growth progress at every stage. These sensors are able to assess the amount of chlorophyll present, track the height of the plant, leaf surface area, and stress levels being endured by the crops.
4. Animal Sensors
The broad spectrum of precision farming also encompasses animal husbandry. Farmers today can use sensors to remotely monitor the movements, body temperature, feeding patterns, and even health status of animals. These sensors will also enhance the management of reproduction and nutrition in livestock. Besides, sensors do measure the weather conditions of the barns or pastures where the animals are kept. The increased possibility and use of this technology as There are many different industries and systems today that are using drones and sensors in agriculture. It is expected that in the next few years, the sensors and drones will become cost effective and accessible to farmers of all types.
Furthermore, drones are expected to be integrated into other systems, and combined with AI and ML, greatly improve current analytic capabilities. It is obvious that AI is capable of analyzing enormous volumes of data and makes relevant suggestions to enhance the overall resource allocation and even make other critical decisions that require resources.
The agricultural sector has arguably benefited the most with the enabling of precision farming together with the use of drones and sensors, whereby farming has become more efficient and less expensive. Such technologies enable farmers to monitor and assess the real-time state of crops, soil, weather, and other conditions that aid a farmer in managing resources to yield productivity while minimizing waste. It is undeniable that the task performing potential of drones and sensors in agriculture will continue growing with the advancement of technology. Undoubtedly, these modern and current technologies have revolutionized agriculture and have put the world in a position to meet the increasing demands of the population in a more environmentally friendly way.
