The
world population is estimated to reach more than 8 billion by the year 2024
(Worldometers, 2015). As such, one of the
challenges in the near further will be how to grow enough food to feed everyone
in an efficient and cost effective manner.
The world’s farmers will be expect to
produce
substantially more food on the same amount of land while using fewer resources.
The view from above is vastly different
than from the ground when it comes to the assessment of crop health. With the ability to cover large amounts of
acreage in a cost effective manner, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) represent
a revolutionary technology for data collection and analysis with the potential
to dramatically increase food production with efficient monitoring of crops and
management of resources.
Precision
agriculture or site-specific crop management is a strategy for crop growth that
focuses on managing individual small parcels of a field instead of treating the
entire field uniformly in a “one size fits all” approach. Unmanned aerial vehicles offer a relatively
simple and cost effective means of acquiring high resolution data to assist the
farmer in monitoring and managing crops.
Machines including UAVs typically perform tasks that are dull, dirty, and
dangerous. In this regard, certain tasks
in agriculture such as crop observation and management may require frequent or
long and monotonous actions, or expose an individual to potentially harmful
chemicals or hazardous conditions. The
UAV relieves much of the burden from the human by being able to work easily,
repeatedly, and efficiently in most any condition. UAVs also offer the advantage over ground
based vehicles in that they are not impeded by unfavorable terrain such as mud
that may preclude or hinder ground vehicle.
UAVs are very agile with the ability to hover, manoeuver, and cover
large areas in a precise manner. Most
importantly, UAV are able to approach crops very closely to collect information
on a much more detailed level and provide higher resolution images when compared to satellite
imagery.
High
resolution data such as normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) collected
by the UAV will be invaluable to the farmer in maximizing food yield, obtaining
information regarding plant health, nutrient management, drainage assessment,
water application, and insect or pest infestation, and developing strategies at
any time of the growing season. In this
regard, aerial mapping by the UAV can be used to gather data about crop yield
or field status, while aerial surveillance offers information over time to help
assess crops for disease and other conditions. Although the initial cost of a fully equipped UAV
platform with payload sensors can be quite significant, the vehicle provides a long
term cost saving over a manned aircraft, and the data provided by the UAV to assist
the farmer in crop monitoring and resource management will be priceless.
References
Vroegindeweij,
B.A., van Wijk, S.W., & van Henten, E.J. (2014). Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Agricultural Applications.
International Conference of Agricultural Engineering. Retrieved from http://www.geyseco.es/geystiona/adjs/comunicaciones/304/C02980001.pdf
Worldometers.
(2015). Population. Retrieved from http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
