ᐈ The drone technology has a good fit in agriculture, but it is not the panacea

Drone technology "has a very good fit in agriculture, because from the air you can achieve strategic information for crop management", according to the founder of the civilian drones company CatUAV, Jordi Santacana, who, however, warns that " It is not the panacea. "

The expert, whose company founded in 2000 is one of the most experienced in Europe, explains that in the past many companies were created that sought immediate benefit with this technology and spread the idea that with the drone, in agriculture, " I could detect anything quickly and easily; And it is not like that".

Santacana, also director of the BCN Drone Center, one of the only ten drone testing centers in the world - in Spain there is another one in Villacarrillo (Jaén) - regrets that, for example, it was said that, thanks to drones, it was possible to detect pests, and "that concept was sold, when scientifically it is not like that".

Drones in agriculture do not replace field work

"The use of drones in agriculture is a complementary system," because it provides more information, "but it does not provide all. It is still necessary field work that is irreplaceable, "he says.

Therefore, Santacana, with some 20 years of experience in the field of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) or UAV (English, "unmanned aerial vehicle"), stresses that the sector of drones "has to be able to transmit a solid and scientific message, so that the farmer knows if it is convenient to invest in this technology ".

The sector, after the "boom" of about six years ago, when many firms with a very short life were created, "is coming to maturity and beginning a more normal stage," he says.

The potential of the agricultural drone starts now

In fact, when it comes to precision agriculture, for which drones "have many applications", their potential "is now beginning".

In this sense, he explains that the applications that can be taken advantage of are those related to the use of water, fertilizers and phytosanitary products for a precise application and in the appropriate doses, which results in cost savings, "optimizing" the use of inputs for crops.

"We are facing a technological revolution that begins with the drone, but we must continue, we must close the cycle" in order to get the most out of that information on the farm.

Vineyard, fruit or corn, some crops that benefit most from the use of the drone

"Sometimes, a lot of interesting information is achieved, but it is difficult to exploit", if the appropriate technology is not available so that the recommendations are correctly carried out, he insists.

And it emphasizes the need to invest in the equipment and machinery necessary so that the farmer can apply the inputs "with the necessary precision to take advantage of that information".

To date, in Spain, the crops for which the use of drones can be logical are, mainly, vineyards, fruit trees or corn, those "with high added value", in some rainfed crops "their use is not justified, because the margin of optimization does not allow to compensate the extra costs ".

The drone and the CAP

Regarding its use for controls in the management of the aid of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Santacana ensures that it can be a tool of "great interest", since "the inspection with drones of the plots can suppose a saving of time and costs for administrations.

Sometimes, inspectors have orographic difficulties to access some plots and be able to check "in situ" that the crop declared for the CAP coincides with the one planted or sown, and check whether there are discrepancies.

In addition, although the inspection also relies on satellite images, if your vision in the area of the plot coincides with cloud cover many days, you do not obtain the necessary information, and it could be complemented with the images captured with conventional cameras by the drone .

Drones for agriculture: what the human eye does not see

Few know that their translation of English is "drone". And if we see them from afar, they effectively remind us in their flight of male bees. The drones have come to stay. And beyond the anecdotal aspect of seeing them delivering pizzas, their use in areas such as precision agriculture is going to suppose an authentic revolution in the productivity of the crops.

José Luis Lubiano has been walking among these vineyards for more than 25 years. With sun, with rain, with cold ... It is impossible to calculate how many kilometers it will take on his legs in so many days out in the open. "The supervision of the crops before supposed to kick the field, be a lot of hours. At the time there was any problem either we took a sheet and took it to analyze or, if they were easy to detect, we detected it and quickly started with the treatments ". At his side is Alberto, who is performing a radiometric calibration with a plate. It's 12 in the morning and a sun of justice. Alberto needs to calibrate that solar radiation to program the drone that is about to take off. The drone has processed the information and has given its approval. It takes off before the look of José Luis, between fascinated and suspicious.

In less than 15 minutes the drone has compiled all the information that it would have taken Jose Luis several days to walk the vineyards

"The flight of the drone is very simple - Alberto Abad tells us, pilot of drones -. The client tells us the plot that wants to fly and we through a program put the coordinates of that plot, delimit the perimeter to fly and introduce it to the drone. He reads this data and automatically, as soon as he gets off the flight, he goes through the plot. The flight time varies depending on the hectares that we are going to fly over. From 4 minutes to 12 or 14 at most we have autonomy with these batteries. "

And in less than 15 minutes the drone has collected all the information that José Luis would have taken several days of work.

A scientific agriculture

"We are providing a precision agriculture service. We have a drone with a multispectral camera and what we do is perform an analysis of the state of the crop. See the light that absorbs and the light that reflects. Let's say it's like an x-ray that a doctor can make you to see the state of the crop, "Alberto tells us.

Depending on the data collected by the drone, it is possible to determine how many liters of water or how many kilograms of fertilizer should be used in each sector

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Applications of Drones for agriculture

This information collected by the drone on your flight is processed and maps are generated using remote sensing indexes. The next step is the agronomic interpretation of these indices. Depending on a stress index of the plant, for example, you can determine how many liters of water or how many kilograms of fertilizer you have to put in each sector. All that information is delivered to the farmer in an app on his mobile device.

"Normally farmers know their farms and know how to interpret the variability that they have. But what we are going to see is where they have to prune more or less, where they have to pay more or less ... that they know their farms in a much more precise and more in depth way. Let's see if they are getting the kilograms that can potentially the quality they want, or if they can get more or should get less, "says Pablo Moran, Key Account Manager of Hemav, a pioneer in the use of drones in precision agriculture .

"Farmers usually apply 10% more of everything. They want to heal in health and say 'I'm going to add 10% more water or nitrogen'. We indicate the exact moment and the exact amount of fertilizer that the plants need, and by means of this optimization of the agricultural management what we do is a reduction of costs and to maximize the production ", concludes Pablo.

Drone technology at the farmer's service

The drones in the military field have decades of history, in fact it is considered that the first known drone as such was already used in the First World War. However, in the civil and commercial field its appearance has occurred in the last ten years.

"We indicate the exact moment and the exact amount of fertilizer that the plants need and by means of this optimization what we do is a reduction of costs and to maximize the production"

Hemav is a company that designs and markets high value-added solutions for companies thanks to its ability to process information obtained with drone technology. What was born as a project of a group of aeronautical engineers from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia has been growing little by little until becoming a true reference and one of the most important companies in the field of drones nationwide. Fernando Romero is a managing partner of Hemav: "We started working with Telefonica some years ago, especially with the idea of combining two technologies: telecommunications and aeronautics, based on the use of drones; two disruptive technologies, but that have to do with the IoT (Internet of Things, for its acronym in English), with the machine to machine. "

Hemav specializes in areas of activity where people still work in a traditional way or in which the efficiency and safety of workers can be improved. For example, in the industrial inspection, reviewing high voltage lines. However, his big bet is precision agriculture.

"In agriculture we have democratized an old technology, remote sensing, which has usually been done with manned aerial means, small planes. The multispectral cameras that we boarded in the drones were formerly very large, now they are the size of a mobile phone. The drone does this is to ship these sensors on an unmanned platform, which is low cost, it is very easy to deploy, very easy therefore to embark and we are reaching thousands of farmers, "says Fernando.

Tradition and modernity

Agriculture is one of the oldest human activities, in which tradition has always had a great weight and in which knowledge has traveled from father to son, from generation to generation.

Bodegas Emilio Moro is a traditional winery with more than 120 years of history. Their wines are known worldwide and are one of the flags of the denomination of origin Ribera de Duero. Despite not giving up its identity, its director, José Moro, understands that technological innovation must go hand in hand with tradition in order to get their wines to have more personality. Good example of this are the agreements he has reached with Telefónica looking for those synergies for the implementation of new technologies around the vineyard.

"In agriculture we have democratized an old technology, remote sensing, which has been done usually with small planes. The drone is low cost "

"This has taken shape with the first program we have implemented, the VisualNACert, with which we have an integral management of our entire vineyard. It is about moving towards the future, that allows us to save time and have more information about our production, a faster decision making and that will result in the quality of our grapes and our vineyards. I believe that it is also a pioneering idea in the Ribera del Duero and will bring some important benefits when we talk about quality grape production ", explains José Moro, son of the founder of the famous winery.

Within this great technological agreement between Telefónica and Bodegas Emilio Moro, it has been decided to go a step further and bet on drone technology in the supervision of the vineyards. "We realized the possibilities that had been using the drones and then we spoke with Telefonica to develop this technology. With those photos sent to us by the drones we can see the vigor that a vineyard has, we can see the different qualities that we can have in each plot. That information can be transmitted to the person who is going to work in the vineyard and can use it according to the treatments that have to be done or the nutritional status of the plant. "

Vicente Abete is the Winemaker of Bodegas Emilio Moro. Nobody like him to tell us about the benefits that this innovative technology has brought to his daily work: "Production is qualitatively and quantitatively improved in a clear way. We especially seek to improve qualitatively. What we are looking for is that all the strains give the same quality. What are we going to have with the drone? Well, information about differences in vigor, quality differences, so we will know where those strains are that give us a lower quality to be able to act on them and improve the quality of the grape ".

"The world of wine has evolved a lot and we have to make wines with the highest quality. This requires treating the raw material, the grape, with the utmost care, and for this information is essential. Tradition supports innovation. Innovation is knowledge and knowledge is put in favor of developing better wines and with more personality ", concludes José Moro.

Drones in favor of the planet

The drone technology applied to agriculture has an important added value, since its generalization could help a better optimization of resources. According to the FAO, the feeding forecasts due to ratios and population growth rates worldwide are worrisome. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that in the year 2050 it will be necessary to raise 70% more the current agricultural production to be able to feed the whole planet, therefore remote sensing, as a technique that aims to increase production, can contribute decisively to that challenge of society on a global scale.

"In parallel, this growth of agricultural production must be accompanied by a rationalization of the consumption of chemical substances, which are often used indiscriminately and massively in many crops. Remote sensing can help make this consumption of fertilizers and herbicides more efficient. There is also the issue of pesticides, which is also another point of concern, since they have a very important impact on the planet, and everything that works in line with optimizing the use of pesticides to treat pests is also a contribution substantial in the environmental challenge of the coming years ", highlights Fernando Romero.

Another fundamental challenge for the coming decades will be the adequate management of the planet's water resources. José Moro finds in the drones an important utility for a fairer and more equal distribution of water: "Drones can already be used as a source of useful and updated information on water resources and infrastructure. They can be useful when it comes to quantifying, preventing droughts, floods and water-related phenomena. They will allow us to monitor crops, find a way to conserve nature. In short, drones close the gap between satellite and the cultivation of fields. "

The third revolution in cultivation methods

"It's amazing how technology has changed the way we grow vines. I remember when I was a child and I was going to help my father with a plow, and that was the most cutting-edge technology we had, "says José Moro

"The first great innovation of the human being when he abandoned hunting and nomadism, and began to be a sedentary species, was undoubtedly the introduction of animals and tools in the work of the lands. It was the first revolution in cultivation methods. "The second had to do with the introduction of agricultural machinery and the extension of chemical products, which would allow more and more quality to be produced. And now we have the third revolution, the one associated with information technology, "reflects Fernando Romero. "How can we use technologies associated with the IoT, how do we put sensors in the field ... and how do we put all this together from the air? And what we are seeing is a positive impact in terms of accompanying an increase in global production, which is imperative; second, to improve the quality of life of farmers, and third, how the use of all these data has a positive effect on respect for the environment. "

"It's amazing how technology has changed the way we grow vines. I remember when I was a child and I was going to help my father with a plow, and that was the most cutting-edge technology we had. And nowadays we cultivate our vineyards a la carte. I believe that our ancestors already applied innovation. They did it by intuition and that innovation is our tradition. The same as our innovation will be tradition for the following generations. And this culture of knowledge is going to be a great legacy ", concludes José Moro.

Meanwhile, José Luis, as every day for more than 25 years, looks to the sky. But no longer to know if tomorrow it will rain.

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