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Crop health drone AI

Drones for crop health monitoring: Taking agriculture to new heights

Drones for crop health monitoring: Taking agriculture to new heights

Drones are a hot topic these days. But what if these aerial vehicles were actually delivering more than just nice videos? What if they could help farmers ensure successful harvests and safer food supplies, too?

Actually, they can — and the agricultural industry is taking notice. Drones help the agricultural industry by increasing crop production and monitoring crop growth.

Who would have thought that drones, a tool originally built for military purposes, would come in handy for many industries? For some sectors such as agriculture, it has become so useful that it can help to carry out activities that could not have been done before.

In fact, agriculture is one of these sectors that is constantly looking for innovative solutions, as the population is expected to reach 9.1 billion by 2050 and the industry faces the challenge of boosting food production that meets the growing demand.

To overcome the challenges, more attention began to be paid to drones equipped with computer vision technology to help increase crop yields. These technologies have become so popular with the industry that they are projected to grow 5x and be worth $ 5.7 billion by 2025.

So what exactly do these unpiloted aircrafts offer to farmers?

AI-powered drones

artificial intelligence drones

Modern irrigation practices, livestock technology, fertilizer management, and various other tools have allowed farmers to improve different operations. But when it comes to crop production and growth monitoring, drones have established themselves as the best solution for farmers

The drones are equipped with GPS systems and cameras that allow them to fly over every part of the field that needs to be inspected and take images. So once the crops have been planted and started to grow, farmers implement this technology and give a certain flight path based on the area they want to survey.

So what’s new and innovative in flying camera drones? Well, the thing is, these cameras are not the normal ones. They are called multispectral imaging cameras that are so comprehensive that they are used for military purposes such as detecting landmines.

While landmine detection is useful for everyone, for farmers it is primarily used to improve crop, soil and fertilization management. The taken images are integrated with specific software that shows the image in different colors. For example, if the field shows green color, the crops in that area have good photosynthesis and their growth is healthy.

farming drone computer vision

However, the areas showing the red and yellow color need attention, as the crops are not growing as they should. All of this information is vital as after looking at it, farmers can manually go and check what is causing the problem of unhealthy crops. Are the crops underwatered, insufficiently fed, are insects causing the issue or perhaps the plants are being overwatered?

This allows farmers to be proactive rather than reactive when the problem is already visible and damaging. The ability to be proactive is due to drones that make the crop monitoring process fast and effective.

Imagine farms of over a thousand acres. The human resource it would take to replace what drones effortlessly do would be immense. With flying technology, however, they not only save time but detect details that would be impossible to see with the naked eye, regardless of human resources.

Innovating the farming industry

Drones serve as a powerful tool to monitor the growth of crops. But this is not the only thing that these flying objects can help farmers with. In addition to supervision, they can also plant seeds, apply spray treatments, and even serve as a security tool to keep an eye on the area and make sure operations are going as planned.

With so many applications and benefits, it is not an enigma why this technology is experiencing such rapid growth and why so many farms are turning their attention to drones.

If you want to keep up with the trend using the technology described above or any other, you have come to the right place. Our experts offer a free consultation call to discuss your ideas and their tangibility.

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© 2021 - MaxinAI | All Rights Reserved
© 2021 - MaxinAI | All Rights Reserved