SEC | S20W6: "The Use of Drones in Agriculture"

Hello guys,
I welcome you all to my blog today. The contest this week says The Use of Drones in Agriculture is indeed a wonderful one and I would like to share my participation in it.

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What role have drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) played in modernizing agriculture? Use your country as an example if applicable.

There are many roles which drones have played in modernizing agriculture even here in my country Nigeria and I will share in details of some of these key ways for your understanding.

Precision Agriculture: One of the ways drones has helped in the modernization of agriculture in Nigeria is in the Precision Agriculture. Drones are used in this type of agriculture to optimise the use of resources to avoid waste.

What this means is that the drone takes into account some notable resources such as water, fertiliser etc on a particular place and then says if there should be more and the quantity needed or there should be none at all. Getting the right proportion to everything helps reduce waste.

Crop Spraying and Seeding: With the help of drones, spraying and seeding has become more easier. As you may have known, in any farm land there are weeds combined with other crops and the only way to get rid of these weeds is by spraying but most times while spraying it affect the main crop and that is where the drone comes to play.

Drones target specific areas or plants as programmed and remove or kill only that one and it uses the amount of chemical required to perform such an act. This is so that human staying around don't get affected with excessive chemicals around.

Irrigation Management: With the help of drones, farmers are able to identify areas which has much water and areas that are dried and needs more water. This helps farmers to maximise the usage of the available in their disposition.

Crop Health Assessment and Forecasting: Drones now help to determine the health of crops and also predict what yield the crop will have at the end of its life cycle. With these, farmers are able to project and plan themselves for the future. So major decisions as to if they should invest more or focus on another will be known to them at the very beginning because of this drones.

Livestock Management: Drones work perfectly and effectively for livestock farming as it is used to check and monitor the movement of livestock, check for injured or sick animal and even check the location where they can get a better food to eat.

In summary, based on the 5 points listed above you will agree with me that drones have efficiently made agriculture more beautiful as we see more productive and proper mange of resources as only the needed portion of anything is given to the plant or livestock for their survival.

How do drones contribute to precision and efficiency in agricultural practices? What are the key benefits of using drones in agriculture?

Without saying much based on the above listed point in question 1, you will agree with me that drones contribute to precision and efficiency in agricultural practices very well. For the sake of this question I will still discuss about it again for your understanding.

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Efficient Resource Allocation: The use of drones as we all know help you as a farmer to use only the needed resource for a particular crop or livestock hence there is no room for wastages or under use of resources. This also help to reduce the cost which farmers are supposed to use and purchase all of those things needed.

Increased Speed and Productivity: With the help of drones, the speed and the productivity of crops and livestock tends to be very high since they are given the right proportion to everything and nothing is lacking to hinder their growth. Drones as we remember tells us if water is needed and the quantity and so also fertlizer and others.

Labor and Cost Efficiency: What 100 of people could have done within hours, the drone can do it within minutes and this there by reduce the amount of labourers to be employed in the farm and also help reduce the cost that could have been incurred by the farmer.

Efficient Field Mapping and Monitoring: With drones in the farm you can see everything going on in your farm on the screen which is the main ways you can identify any problem with your crops and then solve them accordingly instead of delaying and unaware because you haven't gone to that part of the farm.

Precision in Crop Spraying: Drones are used effectively especially when it comes to crop spraying as only the places where unwanted crops are found within the farm are the only places where the drones will spray and it will also use the right quantity which will kill the weed so no need for loss.

Key Benefits of Using Drones in Agriculture

There are many benefits of using drones in agriculture and in this section I will like to discuss a few of them below 👇.

• Enhanced Efficiency: Drones help to carry out activities faster than any manual labour and it does it accurately.

• Increased Precision: With drones only the crop needed and the portion needed for fertlizer and water that will be add by the drone.

• Improved Crop Health and Yield: Drones help to dictate disease on crops and when that is done, the required pesticides will be put to check the disease and also that make the yield to increase.

• Reduced Labor and Operational Costs: With the help of drones, labor cost and operations are reduced drastically because you will employe less people there by cutting down cost.

• Enhanced Decision-Making: Based on the data gathered, the drones can predict to farmers how far the entire farm produce will be and that helps farmers to make decisions properly.

In summary, drones help in no small way to improve agriculture as it attains to every aspect of the farming system. With drones we now record higher yields and also treat every form of disease effectively.

How do drones help manage soil moisture and nutrient levels in crops?

Drones are made up of specialised sensors which helps to manage soil moisture and nutrient and below I will like to discuss some this sensors for soil moisture. Thermal and multispectral cameras are two major sensors that give accurate result when it comes to soil moisture.

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Soil Moisture

Thermal Imaging: Drones are used here by farmers which has Thermal sensors to dictate areas where there are more water and places where there are less water. So farmers will then carry out their irrigation on their farms based on the result provided by this sensor and the soil will be give a desired water.

Multispectral and Hyperspectral Imaging: This is another type of sensor that is used to determine excessive water in the soil just by analysing the health of the plant. The drone through this sensor check the well being of the plants and then go ahead to tell if the moisture is much or less.

Key Benefits for Managing Soil Moisture:

• Efficient Use of Resources: There is no over use of resources here. Plants or crops are given the desired water for their growth.

• Preventing Water Stress: When farmers discover too much moisture in a place then they go ahead to plant crops that does well within that space.

Managing Nutrient Levels

Crop health and soil conditions are the two factors always taken into account when talking about Managing Nutrient Levels so I will discuss it below.

Multispectral Imaging for Nutrient Deficiency: This sensor which is implanted in the drones help to dictate any disease or attack on the plant is Ben before it becomes visible to the naked eyes. So when this act is dictated, farmers will go ahead to take care of the plant and start working on controling the disease before it becomes worse.

Variable Rate Application (VRA): This sensor is also designed in such a way that it checks the different amount of nutrients in the soil and then recommend or apply fertiliser in different proportion to different areas based on the needed amount of the soil nutrients at the time.

Key Benefits for Managing Nutrient Levels:

• Precise Fertilization: Only the required amount of fertiliser will be used on a particular piece of land. This means that there is no missuse of resources.

• Optimized Crop Health: If the crop gets good nutrient, it will be healthy and that will lead to good production of the said crops.

In summary, drones help in moisture dictation and nutrient dictation as well and when these two are checked properly, then it becomes easy for the farmer to make better predictions as to how the growth of his farms will be.

Explain the significance of multispectral and hyperspectral imaging sensors in agricultural drones.

The importance or significance of multispectral and hyperspectral imaging sensors in drones and in the agricultural sector can never be overemphasized. I will explain below why I have said so.

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Multispectral Imaging Sensors: This captures light in wavelength such that it focuses on analysing the health of the plant and the condition of the soil at any point and time. Now let's look at some of the significance Multispectral Imaging Sensors in Agriculture.

• Monitoring Crop Health: The sensor monitor plant health and also tells the condition of the plant even before they become visible to the human eyes. This goes a long way to help people to start working on the health issues before it surfaces.

• Weed and Pest Management: Using this sensor, the dictation of weed becomes very easy such that when pesticides or herbicides are sprayed the target will be on weed and not plants.

• Detecting Plant Stress Early: Dictation of early sign and symptoms of infection even before the manifest is one of the key features of these sensor and these will enable them to work on it faster to avoid the spread which help increase the yield of the plant thereafter.

Hyperspectral Imaging Sensors: Just like the former early discussed, these also capture light in wavelength but here a much wider range is covered and a broader view is seen on the screen enabling them to cover more grounds. The significance of these are seen below.

• Detailed Crop Health Analysis: Here a more detailed crop health analysis is provided because the sensor here works and cover more ground and see more things and even faster thereby helping to tackle issues timely.

• Identifying Specific Nutrient Deficiencies: Since the sensor here works closely with moisture and nutrient, it dictate easily deficiency in plant and then recommend which of the nutrient that must be added to make the crop produce well.

• Disease Detection: Any disease here, it's dictation becomes much easier since the said sensor works closely to fetch it out as it sees it at an early stage even before it becomes visible to the human eyes. So treatment or separation is done to ensure others don't get affected.

In summary, both Multispectral and hyperspectral imaging sensors are two major sensors whose aim is to improve agriculture in all means as we get to see things more clearer and easier before the manifest for human eyes to behold them.

How drones help in soil mapping and why is it important for precision farming?

Drones play an important role in soil mapping such as providing important details about the soil composition, moisture, nutrient and others. Below I will share with you some of the ways drones help in soil mapping for a better understanding. Since these drones are made up sensors which dictate and cover a wide range of areas within the shortest possible time.

Multispectral sensors: Light reflection from the soil is one major way which the drone dictate variation of the soil and then says what is lacking in the soil and the proportion of it needed in the soil.

Thermal sensors: Here we see the moisture measurement in the soil to determine areas with high and low moisture content and then we know where to use irrigation and what crops to plant in water log areas.

Soil Health Indicators: The health of the soil also can be determined and nutrient needed to improve the soil recommended so as to improve productivity. As you know the more productive the soil is the more productive the crops or plants will be.

Creating Detailed Soil Maps: Based on generated data, the drones will provide exact details of every aspect of the field and also talk about what is lacking in a certain location by sharing the PH range of any location and telling you what is lacking and what you can add in a certain proportion.

Why Soil Mapping is Important for Precision Farming

The importance of soil mapping even as mentioned above can never be overemphasized. So in this section I will focus specifically on the different importance associated with soil mapping.

• Improving Crop Yields and Quality: When soil mapping is done properly you will notice an increase in crop yields and also the quality of the crops because you will every nutrient and moisture needed for the land will be given in a right proportion.

• Optimizing Input Use: The use of input is always optimise because only the needed is taken into consideration and these means that there will be no room for any waste at all.

• Reducing Environmental Impact: There is much reduction in environmental impact as provision of anything such as fertlizer, water and others are given only based on the need of the crops and nothing more hence this doesn't affect the environment.

In summary, drones are use in soil mapping to dictate the exact thing needed by the soil at any point and time. Once there is soil mapping in a place it means that the exact properties of the soul is taken into consideration and that will also determine the type of crops and how far it will do well in that location.

Finally, I want to invite @suboohi, @josepha and @ripon0630 to also share their entry in this contest if they haven't join yet.

Cc:
@mainuna
@xkool24