- By 2050, we will need to produce 60% more food to feed our growing population.
- 50% of the globe’s habitable land is used for agriculture.
- Since 1948, United States agricultural productivity has increased more than 200%.
- Cropland takes up about 20% of United States land.
photo: Alteia
Current Problem
Today’s food systems face many challenges: food insecurity, rapid population growth, and limited farming land. The ever-increasing negative effects of climate change can alter farming periods, severely damage crops, induce weather changes, raise temperatures, and cause further disturbances to farming practices. To accommodate for these stresses, we need to change the current ways that we farm. One solution is the implementation of drones and artificial intelligence (A.I.).
While farming with drones provides growers with a multitude of benefits, there are still many challenges. A main issue is that the implementation of this technology is highly expensive. Another hurdle is that of teaching farmers how to use the A.I. and understand the data it provides. Not only that, but this technology is still far from perfect – many drone programs have difficulties monitoring areas with high crop diversity and certain planting patterns. While the widespread use of agricultural drones is still fairly uncommon, developments are continuously being made and we will undoubtedly see them popularized in the near future.
Emerging Solutions
Los Angeles
The application of A.I. in farming provides farmers with increased levels of efficiency and solutions to problems induced by climate change. Farming with drones can help farmers through:
- Monitoring the growth of crops
- Inspecting fields for risks such as diseases, pests, and weeds
- Planting and seeding
- Providing planting advice
- Collecting other data from the fields
Drones can be especially helpful in remote, inaccessible areas where vehicles or humans can not safely reach. Thus, this technology has allowed for new ways of crop growing in places that previously were not possible to be used for farming.
As part of its Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program, the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning has implemented the use of drones to inspect large, remote, difficult to access sites, such as solar farms. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this has allowed the department to continue their site visits while also maintaining social distance measures and limiting physical contact.
California
Statewide, the University of California system has been using drones in a multitude of agricultural and environmental research projects – in rangelands, field crops, orchards, forests, lakes, and more.
A group of researchers at the University of California, Merced are working to develop drone tools to detect areas of water stress in almond orchards with the use of multispectral cameras. This process is a contrast to the more tedious, manual process of measuring the water tension in individual leaves.
As well, in Napa County’s Vaca Mountains, a group of University of California, Davis researchers are making efforts to obtain information on rangeland conditions with the use of drones. This information can facilitate management decisions on intensively grazing livestock.
National
One of the biggest challenges facing farming with drones has been from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). But, in August of 2016, they removed regulatory obstacles that had previously been barriers to the legal use of drones for research and commercial purposes. This has been a major step in helping to facilitate the widespread implementation of drones in farming.
Global
In Australia, researchers at the University of Melbourne are working with drones to assess water stress on land. With the application of thermal imaging, they have been able to obtain information about where individual plants in a vineyard are suffering. By assessing the vineyard as a whole rather than monitoring a small number of samples from a few grapevines, farmers are thus able to better understand the exact location of water stresses.
In India, the government of Andhra Pradesh will be deploying 154 drones for land survey. They are starting the undertaking with 51 fully operations drones by April 5th, 2022. The target is to complete the land survey and issue clear titles in 5,200 villages by the end of July 2023, another 5,700 villages by the August 2023, and 6,460 villages by September 2023.
As noted at the top of this page this article was written by Ava Dillard.
