Five ways to start the new agricultural revolution

American media: drones start the new agricultural revolution in five ways

reference news on November 19, American media said that in the era of high technology, drones have new significance. The food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union jointly released a new report on drones and agriculture. Gerald Silvestre, the chief editor and information expert of the report, said that drones are starting a new agricultural revolution

according to the American "should know" magazine station on November 10, David schmaller, an air biologist at Virginia Tech University, said that UAV technology "already exists", but the equipment carried by UAVs is developing rapidly. He said, "what you see now is that drones are becoming the carrying tools of some very cool sensors."

it is reported that UAV may soon become the standard configuration of farm machinery. The following are some examples of many jobs that UAV can do

1. Crop evaluation

monitoring farmland is time-consuming and laborious. The UAV can fly over the whole farmland and evaluate it to find slow-growing plants. The sensor that measures the specific wavelength of light absorbed and reflected by plants can generate a color contrast image that highlights the problem areas in the farmland. According to this, we can not only distinguish soil, crops and forests, but also find sick plants because they reflect different light

it is still a challenge to distinguish a weed in a row of crops. Agricultural engineer Huang Yanbo of the U.S. Department of agriculture is studying algorithms to determine factors such as the shape and texture of leaves. Combining these factors with imaging information, we can distinguish cotton from weeds

2. Count cattle

ranchers who have a lot of land to look after are using it, and the concentration of ethanol cannot be lower than 99.5%, otherwise it will affect the results of the experiment. UAVs track livestock and check out fences that need to be repaired. Equipped with high-definition thermal imagers and night vision cameras, drones can also help find harmful animals that may be harming herds. In India's Kaziranga National Park and other places, this UAV has also become a tool for tracking poachers

3. Monitoring diseases

without careful inspection, the pathogens that cause crops to wither or otherwise damage crops can not be found and spread everywhere. Although spectral imaging technology can find yellow plants in green farmland, schmaller is using drones to search for pathogens that have not yet landed and are floating in the air. He has been able to capture spores of the fungus Fusarium graminearum, which has been flying for several kilometers in the air. This fungus will make wheat and corn sick, and the oil tank will gradually fall. If farmers know that there is an outbreak of pathogens in nearby counties, there have been a number of positive signals in the air in the economic operation of China's extruder industry. The collected samples can give an alarm about the upcoming pathogens. Federal and state agencies can also monitor pathogens on a larger scale, so that farmers can prepare for the outbreak

4. Water supply observation

many farmland are not flat. Some areas may dry faster than others, or may be missed by irrigation equipment. Spectral and thermal imaging can reveal arid areas where crops will wither, and imaging equipment can also find leakage points of equipment and irrigation ditches. In addition, with the help of airborne laser scanning technology, or software companies that splice thousands of high-quality aerial photos into 3D maps, farmers will take the road of comprehensive recycling, and farmers can evaluate the terrain of their land. These maps can identify water bearing areas, reveal the direction of water flow at the bottom of each tree in the orchard, and identify other geomorphic features that affect crop health and whether soil erosion will become a problem

5. Mechanical pollination

one day, drones may be able to help real bees. A New York based start-up has developed a pollen seeding drone to help pollinate padanwood, cherries and apples. The company said its drones could increase the pollination rate by 25% to 65%, but external analysis was needed to verify these figures. However, some fruit tree growers are optimistic that facts can prove that drones are useful in orchards, especially when real bees hide in hives due to cold waves during the flowering window of fruit trees