Technology is transforming every
inch of our lives. Almost every sector has
witnessed technological revolution and agricultural sector is
no exception. Technology has gifted
agrarian sector many powers, riding on which it
has been able to make close to the ever-rising demand. The
latest among the powers that
technology has provided to agrarian sector
is - Agricultural Drone.
For a layman, utilization of the drones
might be limited to just spying,
surveillance and bombarding terrorists' hide-outs.
However, one with slightly wider knowledge can easily state
the mighty utilization of the invention of
drones for agriculture sector. These will ease the
work of agrarian society to a remarkable extent.
The long walk of the farmers through
the farm to keep regular
inspection on the crop
will be shortened. Drones
allow a much better inspection over crop than manual one, because:
- Drones can provide aerial view of the crop, which reveals patterns that unwrap everything from irrigation problems to soil variation, even pest and fungal infestations that can't be visible to naked eyes.
- The cameras attached with the drone can click multispectral images, capture images in the infrared as well as the normal mode, which can be combined to create a reliable data to examine the differences between healthy and distressed plants.
- A drone can be programmed to check on a crop at regular intervals like: every week, every day, or even every hour.
- Drones can be affixed with the spraying equipments to provide the fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, etc. in the crops.
- Flying drone with sound alert promises to be a better guard to scare the attacking birds.
- Also, what may attract farmers more towards agricultural drones is its price, an agricultural drone equipped with cameras will be available for less than $1,000.
Ready to Roll but with Some Rules
Earlier when the concept of agricultural
drone was inching towards the
launch, a roadblock disrupted its
movement as FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) banned the
commercial use of drones in US airspace citing breach of privacy. But
recently, FAA has exempted companies who are manufacturing
agricultural drones with some guidelines to follow. The guidelines
for commercial drones proposed by FAA are as follows:
- Drones must not weigh more than 55 pounds
- It must fly within the sight of remote pilots
- Drones can be flown only during daylight
- It must stay below 500 feet in the air and must fly at less than 100 mph
- The minimum age limit for a person operating the drone is 17 years and pilots have to pass an aeronautics test and must be attested by the Transportation Security Administration
After proposing the rules to fly drones, the FAA has asked public to
come-up with their suggestions and set 60 days deadline for final
implementation, but industry experts expect the analysis of comments
could take 18 months or longer before the rules are completed.
But one thing is for sure that drones are
going to get clearance for agricultural use
by the FAA soon.
Finally drones may end up better known as a green-tech instrument and
help the agrarian sector with saving water, pesticides and harvest
healthy crops.
