Drones are now a days a common name referring to a flying object. Drones became famous in the 21st century when they showed potential in many military operations and rescue missions.
These can be controlled remotely and can be flown at various distances and heights. These are mostly used for some of the toughest jobs in the world where human interference is almost not possible.
Nowadays, drones have made their way to hobbyists and common people. They serve as entertainment for these people mostly used to take stunning videos and photos.
Table of contents
What is a drone?
Drones refer to any unpiloted aircraft. These are sometimes referred to as “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” (UAV). These drones carry out many impressive tasks ranging from defense operations to agriculture to packaging delivery to rescue operations. These come in various sizes, ranging from the palm of your hand to as large as an aircraft.
Ground control stations are the central control unit that allows a drone to fly. These stations can be as big as a room with multiple screens to small as a hand-held controller or even a mobile app. These drones are precisely coordinated using GPS (Geo-Positioning Satellite), sometimes up to the range of centimeter precision.
Drones are even capable of carrying payloads of varying sizes, shapes, and loads. These payloads can range from lifesaving medicines to military weapons to as small as a go-pro camera.
What is sustainable farming?
Sustainable farming is using farming techniques considering the ecological and environmental cycles. This does not only focus on the economic part of farming but also on the use of non-renewable factors in the process effectively. This brings up the growth of nutritious and healthy food as well as bring up the standard of living of the farmer.
Sustainable agriculture helps farmers innovate and employ recycling methods such as recycling crop waste, animal manure, or crop rotation. Collection of rainwater for irrigation is also one of the best-practiced methods.
Types of drones
Based on Range
Very close-range Drones: These can travel up to 3 miles and are usually used by hobbyists.
Close range Drones: These have a range of about 30 miles
Short-range drones: These travel up to 90 miles and are used for military operations such as intelligence gathering.
Mid-range drones: These have a range of about 400-mile distance and is used for military, scientific, meteorological research and intelligence gathering purpose.
Long-range drones: These are often called endurance UAV’s and have the ability to go beyond 400 miles range and can fly up to 3000 feet in the air.
Based on Rotor
Single Rotor Helicopters
These look exactly like miniature helicopters which run either with gas or electric power. Since they have a single rotor, they can fly for a longer distance and carry higher payloads. These are used for LIDAR systems, survey land, research storms, etc.
Multirotor Drones
These are some of the smallest in the class and lightweight as well. They have limited distance, speed, and height which they can travel. But these are the perfect drones for enthusiasts and hobbyists particularly for taking photographs. These can spend 20-30 mins in the air carrying a lightweight payload.
Fixed-wing Drones
These look very similar to our aircraft where the wings provide the lift. Since there aren’t any rotors, these drones are much more efficient allowing them to glide in the air for more than 15 hours. Because of its bulkiness, they need a runway to take off and usually runs in fuel. These are particularly used in military operations, to carry large scientific equipment, or to reach remote areas.
Laws and licenses required to fly drones
India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) release new drone policies on August 26th, 2021. Drones are now officially known as Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS).
There are two types of licenses offered for flying UAS. Student Remote Pilot license is valid for a period of 5 years and can be renewed for an additional 2 years. Students of age above 18 years and maximum age of 65 years can apply. The remote Pilot license is valid for 10 years and can be renewed for an additional 10 years.
Under new rules, you do not require security clearance to operate and fly mini-drones or nano drones (less than 250 gm). Also, no remote pilot license is required for micro drones (for non-commercial use). Remember to only fly below 50 ft. All other types of drones require licenses under UIN and UAOP.
The Civil Aviation Ministry has put forward an interactive air space map showing 3 zones: yellow zone (controlled airspace), green (no permission requires), and red (no-fly zone). The yellow zone around the airport is now reduced to a 12 km radius, make sure you don’t fly your drones near your airport, else you will be in trouble.
Again, online registration of all drones is mandatory and can be done on the digital sky platform. The penalty for drone-related non-compliance now stands at Rs 1,00,000 in India.
With the new rules, our government has increased the payload capacity for drones from 300 kilograms to 500 kilograms. The government is expected to give more updates on geofencing, real-time tracing beacons, etc in the future.
Uses of drones in agriculture
Mapping
Earlier farmers used to take a tape with 2-3 people with him and measure around the farm. This process usually took a full day and exhaustive work. Measuring the farmland is a vital part of deciding which crop needs to be grown in which part of the land to get the best yield.
In the case of a drone, The farmer has to just walk around the perimeter of his farmland with the controller in his hand. With sophisticated technologies and GPS, the drones map out the area the farmer has walked thereby getting the basic map of the land.
Using drones makes it quick and easy and gives centimeter-level accuracy mapping the land. Once the map is generated, you can take further segmented measurements using the generated map. You can zoom in and cut out portions you need and plan accordingly where to farm the crops. A whole day multi-labor intensive process now takes a couple of minutes.
Additionally, you can get a 3D map as well. By using this, you can study the changes in terrain over time. This can help with irrigation management and other issues that come in the farmland. This can give you an RGB color reading of the land and can show you which area is affected by color changes. By this, you can work on that area and fix it before it’s too late.
Seeding and spraying
This is the most used function of drones in the agricultural industry. Traditionally, spraying pesticides and seeding was a labor-intensive process where he has to walk around the whole land spraying for each and every crop there is. This usually took days depending on the area of land and inevitably increased cost.
Drones can carry 20 liters of pesticides and can cover more than 20 acres of land in an hour. This actually cuts back the need for using more pesticides (cost-cutting) as it accurately and evenly sprays pesticides all over the crops.
Since we have now the map of the land, we can see which areas are weak in perception and can command the drones to spray on those affected areas. Without an aerial view, there would have been no possible way to get the exact affected area.
You can even load it up with a liquid de-icer and use it to melt the ice in winter regions. This can be a lot helpful in cities and roads where the ice forms as a thin sheet which is much more dangerous.
Pollination
This can be quite a bit confusing. But think how the drones are flying. They use rotors to fly where they take air from the bottom and push it upward. So, making the drones fly close to the crops causes the air below the drone to suck up to the drone blades.
This forces the pollen grains to get detached themselves and get sucked up to the rotor blades. Since the air is going from bottom to top and then outward, these pollen grains also follow the same fashion, thereby pollinating the plants.
Livestock monitoring
Suppose you have hundreds of cattle with you and you need to keep a track of everyone when they are left to roam around. Aerial drones can do this help by flying around making sure all the cattle are present. If you mount a speaker on the drones and make noises of a dog barking, you can actually control and herd the way you want.
You can also use the thermal camera to see their heat signatures. This is particularly useful at night to count how many are there and which all areas are they grazing on. Additionally, you can even see if there are predators like coyotes or any other wildlife animals around.
Insurance
Drones can be used to examine the cropland in case of any insurance claims. The insurance company can now precisely know which area is affected and at what level. Previously people used to get into the field and measure using tapes which caused a lot of time, effort, and money. This also cuts down the time it takes to settle a claim.
Conclusion
With the new much more relaxed government policies and regulations, we can see a rise in the use of drones in the agricultural segment. But in India, the initial cost to set up a drone is high and there isn’t any subsidiary on obtaining a drone. Additionally, there should be a pilot operating the drone and the use of software make it more difficult for farmers to learn.
Drones are particularly good if you have a very large land, in the range of 5-10 acres. In the Indian scenario, most of the farmers have land of fewer than 5 acres where the use of drones is limited. Also, there aren’t many companies that are making made-in-India high-capacity drones, making accessibility a lot harder. With the high initial cost, farmers are reluctant to own one.
In the future, if we see some subsidiaries from the government with low-cost drones, the era of advanced technologies in the agricultural sector can be the new norm.
Comentarios