Our planet is being destroyed by natural disasters and is full of man-made complex phenomena. These events are not only changing the ecosystem of our planet but also questioning the very existence of humankind.
The use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial vehicles) has become increasingly necessary to deal with the effects of natural and man-made disasters, and even to modernize farming techniques.
Drones, commonly referred as UAVs, are mostly associated with military industry. But with recent developments, it is becoming useful in the areas of Cinema Industry, Information Technology, and other specialized operations in last few decades. The scope of UAVs has further been widened to other areas like Agriculture. According to some sources, the first use of aerial vehicles dated back in 1921 where the USDA, in collaboration with the US Army, deployed it for crop dusting at McCook Field (Dayton, Ohio, USA). It is widely reported that Aerial vehicles began assisting various farmers in 1939 and beyond.
Even if the military industry initially used UAVs widely to different operations, other sectors quickly embraced UAVs when they learned about its widespread applications. The agricultural sector is eventually started using this technology to improve farming precision and efficiency. Thus there is no doubt on their importance using UAVs in agriculture. Different types of UAVs are available in the world market for Agriculture. They are helpful to facilitate agricultural precision by monitoring, by making observation for yielding a better crop quality and plus preventing fields from any sort of damage. The aerial view provided by these UAVs can assist in the information of crop growth stages, crop health and soil variations in real time helping in any mitigation if required.
Since the agricultural technology has driven the farming revolution in recent years, one of the key pivotal point in this aspect is using UAV to different commercial and other big farms.
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Agricultural UAVs are also applied to farming in order to help increase crop production and monitor crop growth. Monitoring crops from the sky using agricultural UAVs helps to gain more efficient crop insights and to more accurately plan and manage their operations.
The sensors and digital imaging capabilities of the drones can give farmers a richer picture of their fields. This information may prove useful in improving crop yields and farm efficiency.
Agricultural UAVs let farmers see their fields from the sky. This bird’s-eye-view can reveal many issues such as irrigation problems, soil variation, and pest and fungal infestations. Additionally, the drone can survey the crops for the farmer periodically to their liking.
Weekly, daily, or even hourly, pictures can show the changes in the crops over time, thus showing possible “trouble spots”. Having identified these trouble spots, the farmer can attempt to improve crop management and production.
Apart from military, using UAVs for the Cinema industry is becoming familiar in Ethiopia. Suggesting that individual farmers in Ethiopia must use UAVs may be unthinkable given the farmers’ economic potential. But large investor farms as well as government-run big research farms had to use UAVs for agricultural purposes. Unfortunately, it is uncommon.
An African-Farmer must use agricultural UAVs in its farming activities. It adds value to the agricultural operation and It contributes significantly to the reduction of strenuous African farming practices. It really helps the African farmer in Crop Monitoring, Soil Assessment, Plant emergence and Population, Crop Protection, Irrigation and Drainage, Harvest Planning, and the like.
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There are more than enough Africans educated in agriculture and technology to reduce the burden of African farmers. However, the knowledge gained by the educated community in this area has contributed little to the reduction of the farmer’s labor.
Regarding Lenders, they have not been able to get out of this vicious circle because the efforts of lenders have not focused on the development of agricultural technology.
The fact that African farmers are doing what they have been doing for the past 100 years is a red light for the ministries and offices that lead this sector in all African countries. African farmers deserve to use UAVs and other agricultural technologies and assisting this helps a country’s economy to grow.
The concerned government offices and private agricultural sectors should give due attention in this regard.
