Drones, satellites and AI: how precision agriculture can cut your input costs and boost yields

Precision Agriculture (PA) concerns the integration of modern technologies such as sensors, tools and data analytics to maximise the farm return, reduce labour time and costs, and ensure the effective management of pests, fertilisers and irrigation processes. For the agrarian community, adoption of drone and satellite-based technologies is the future.

By Dr George Chirima, ARC-Natural Resources and Engineering

When combined with Earth Observation data and Machine Learning (ML) tools, PA processes do not merely enhance overall performance but also enable farmers to overcome other assorted barriers and thus accrue maximum benefits. The main goal of adopting PA is to exclude guesswork and ambiguity, and instead focus on accurate and reliable information for on-farm or market decision making.

External factors like the weather and soil conditions play a critical role in farming. Therefore, PA empowers farmers to adapt to specific environments and make mindful choices accordingly. The technologies help them to conduct in-field soil analysis and crop damage assessments, thereby boosting crop yields and minimising manpower and operational expenses.

Also read: Farmers are going digital and it’s changing how agriculture works

The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) is driving another initiative under the PA theme via the bundling of these technologies with an index-based crop insurance (IBCI) product that it has developed. If adopted, this is indeed a game-changer to especially small-scale farmers as it will open doors to capitalisation of farm ventures.

Currently, when unexpected changes happen, farmers do not have transparent proof for insurance claims, but linking the IBCI product to PA technologies would help them to:

understand the farm terrain;
map the farm size;
accurately estimate crop yield; and
account for capital injected on the farm.

Understanding the layout of the land is the first step, as both the farmer and the insurer need to understand the productivity of the farm. Through processing satellite data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can detect variations in the fertile zones or dry patches in a field, assess crop stresses, and determine yields effectively.

The ARC’s solution is essential in identifying areas prone to flooding as well as making irrigation-related choices.

With the ARC’s new customisable PA platform, observations and measurements of farming data become exponentially easier.

“Let precise aerial view data and analyses give you the insights you require,” stated ARC-Natural Resources and Engineering (ARC-NRE) scientists involved with this initiative.

Also read: New SA platform helps emerging farmers manage water and soil health remotely

Precision stand counts

For example, a farmer may plant 0.6 ha with maize. When the seeds germinate, performing an accurate stand count is critical as it enables the farmer to do the following:

Verify planter efficacy – was it working correctly and is there a need to make any adjustments or repairs before using it in other fields?
Understand seed germination – to get an indication of hybrid seed performance, etc.
Understand indications of pests or diseases – the growth of all stands should be roughly the same at a given point in time.
Identify areas of poor growth – giving the option to replant poorly performing areas.

With traditional agriculture, the above processes are a bottleneck. Farmers perform stand counts by walking through the field rows, manually assessing the evenness of growth, then extrapolating the results to the whole farm.

This process is time-consuming, subjective and has a high margin of error, thus limiting the potential of the growing season.

A satellite/drone-based aerial survey can provide an accurate picture of the farm and analytics can be run on the imagery to automatically extract the growth metrics, allowing farmers to isolate areas of potential loss and take corrective action before it is too late.

Furthermore, PA is fast employing drone-based spraying systems that can precisely dispense micronutrients, fertilisers and pesticides over specified areas of a farm.

This enables optimum usage of expensive resources – when and where they are needed. It also minimises human contact with hazardous chemicals.

Also read: Tshepiso Malema’s app is changing the game for small poultry farmers

Key benefits of Precision Agriculture

Full adoption of PA will play an important role in helping the agricultural sector to address emerging challenges, improve efficiency and outputs.

Automation will provide solutions for the farmer to act with speed and accuracy. Converging with other emerging technologies such as AI, ML, the Internet of Things and satellites, PA can open up new doors for farmers and provide the following key benefits:

Effective and adaptive techniques.
Regular updates about their crops can help farmers to develop strengthened farming techniques. They can adapt to changing weather conditions and allocate resources without incurring any wastage.
Faster data for rapid decision making.
With accurate data processing, quick and mindful decisions can be made without second-guessing, allowing farmers to save the time invested in crop scouting.
Less wastage.
Agri-drones enable optimum usage of resources such as seed, water, fertilisers and pesticides.
Useful for insurance claims.
Farmers can use the data captured to claim crop insurance in case of any damages. They can even calculate risks/losses associated with the land while being insured.
Evidence for insurance companies.
The agricultural insurance sector needs efficient and trustworthy data. They can capture the damages that have occurred and correctly estimate the monetary payback to the farmers.

Also read: Why doing less – but doing it precisely – makes livestock farms more profitable

The future of Precision Agriculture

Precision Agriculture is undoubtedly the future and can transform traditional farming in numerous ways. Although the technologies are expensive, the benefits will outweigh the initial investment.

PA technologies are more complex and take time to learn but will yield results in no time once the farmers have become familiar with them.

Since it is important that they understand the entire process, farmers will inevitably need comprehensive training or partnerships with third-party experts in the PA industry for the acquisition of reliable data.

For more information, email Dr George Chirima at Chirima@arc.agric.za