Drones can help farmers collect all the farming data they want to improve the yield and consequently, increase their income. Data analysis and visualization using artificial intelligence can provide farmers with deep insights into how they can -
Save their crops from diseases,
Assess risks
Count tree/crops
Optimally utilize resources, and
Estimate yield and more.
Temperature, weather, soil conditions, and other external factors play a crucial role in deciding the quality and quantity of produce. With accurate aerial data captured by drones at their disposal, farmers can make mindful choices to better adapt to different conditions.
Image: Plant stand count measurement using drone-based solution
The benefits:
Drones can help in enhancing the overall efficiency of farming practices being used and at the same time, encourage farmers to solve small issues that make a big impact at the time of harvest. Drones and the related drone operations platforms automate the data collection, analysis, and visualization processes and thus enable farmers to make faster and more accurate decisions for improvement of their farming practice.
These companies are involved in making agriculture more sustainable and profitable. They introduce new seed varieties for farms suited for different types of soil and exposure to different climatic conditions. By using drones for crop phenotyping, these companies will:
Have accurate data and insights into the crops and farms spread across different geographies.
Be able to analyze data using a cloud-based end-to-end drone operations platform to help improve the quality as well as quantity of seed yield.
Automate their experiments for developing new seed varieties.
The benefits:
With drones performing in-field inspections, companies can
Cut expenses by reducing the number of personnel required for manual analysis and inspection.
Minimize the ill-usage or non-usage of agri inputs.
Do away with the process of manual reconciliation of data.
Put fixed assets and resources to a more effective use.
Better utilize contracted seed production farms for higher yield
Image: A drone closely surveying a field
The crop insurance claim cycle today is both time-consuming and erroneous. It could take months and even a year for crop insurance companies to verify the claims and then process the settlement. Many of the times, the data collected by insurance surveyors has many errors due to unavailability of high-quality imagery and accurate details. This can lead insurance companies to overpay or underpay for claims, resulting in disputes between them and their stakeholders, regulators, and customers. However, this isn’t the case when drones are deployed for claim assessment work.
The benefits:
With the accuracy and efficiency associated with drones, insurance companies can
Significantly reduce the number of fake insurance claims coming their way.
Reduce the number of personnel required to be present on the field or for conducting inspections.
Save insurance companies’ money, resources, and time.
Image: Insurance surveyor using a drone to survey crops
FMCG companies own vast stretches of agricultural land, and it often becomes quite difficult for them to monitor it properly. This can lead to a compromise with the quality and quantity of the yield. FMCG companies can save themselves the losses caused by weeds, livestock, ad pests by monitoring fields 24*7 with the help of drones. They can also bring down the post-harvest losses considerably by having drones monitor crops throughout their lifespan.
The benefits:
Drones can give FMCG companies information about adjacent isolated fields that they can put to better use.
By having drones collect data, they can reduce the consolidation and reconciliation work significantly.
With all the important data in hand, these companies can make better investment decisions in additional fields as well.
Drones can also help them to enable quality assurance and validate if all their workers are coming/leaving on time and doing their job properly.
Image: Identification of adjacent isolated fields using dronesDrone technology is continuously evolving and has the potential to revolutionize agriculture by digitizing farms. Regulations around manufacturing and operation of drones are also eased by the government to make manufacturing and adoption of this technology easier. With the usage of drones in agriculture likely to rise, it is expected that this technology will have a transformative effect on an ever-growing number of farms, farmers, insurance companies, FMCG companies, and seed producers in the years to come.
