Drones

Introduction

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)

Distant water points and livestock are obvious things that require checking up on, and how better to do it than sending an unmanned aircraft (during the day or night) to confirm that all is in order. Useful applications of drones in agriculture revolve around:

  • surveillance of livestock, vehicles etc
  • damage and infrastructure inspection
  • mapping the layout of lands (3D maps)
  • spraying a crop (with pinpoint accuracy)
  • a useful contribution to precision farming: to monitor things like crop health, determining nutrient needs of plants, fertiliser runoff, and how efficiently water is being used. Indeed, the evidence as presented in one role player’s website suggests that the quality of data from the drone surpasses that of satellites.

General concerns about UAVs centre around the potential misuse of these appliances: the loss of privacy and other security concerns.

Farmers will need to do their own sums about the value UAVs give to their operations. Consider:

  • What additional information will be provided?
  • What operations are performed more effectively by UAVs?
  • Where will their use free up time on the farm for other task?

African business environment

In Africa, the major challenge to using drones in agriculture are the regulations governing their usage. These regulations are generally controlled by military and civil aviation authorities due to the sensitive nature of airspaces where UAVs operate. Currently only seven countries in Africa have regulations regarding drones. These include Cote d’ Ivoire, Kenya, Botswana, South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda and Ghana. In fact, the regulations in Kenya prohibit the use of the UAVs.

Source: “Future of drones in agriculture dependent on enactment of regulations”, an article in SACAU October 2016 newsletter.

National strategy and government contact

Role players

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Websites and publications

Some articles

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