Fall army worm control, irrigation and mass spraying using drones

Astral Aerial Solutions, Chief Technology officer, Allan Mawili, explains how drone-powered solutions in agriculture could be used throughout the crop cycle to provide data for irrigation and nitrogen-level management.[David Njaaga,Standard]

At the University of Nairobi’s Innovation week last month, one of the drones that stole the limelight is ‘the guardian’, which covers longer distance and can fly longer when thrown in the air.

‘Mighty Guardian’

Drone expert Kush Gadhia says the Guardian is a catapult, thrown in the air where it flies at a speed of 100 kilometres-per -hour.

“Because of its resilience, it can be sent to survey farms in remote locations before the farmer makes important farming decisions,” he explains.

On the other hand, Multi-rotors are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) used in crop consulting, irrigation management and spraying. They include the Phantom4, Matrice and the Fly Ox.

The Fly Ox

The Fly Ox, used in fumigation and pest control, goes hand in hand with the Guardian. Once a farmer gets important inspection report from remote farms, they send a loaded Fly Ox, Gadhia explains.

The drone is also designed for long distances of up to 1, 200 kilometres and it can carry up to 4,000 kilos of liquid.

To carry out crop consulting and inspection, cameras mounted on drones generate precise crop maps allowing farmers ability to view their crops without having to physically walk the farm.

“This way, you can view exact locations that are infected, say by army worms and treat them to prevent the situation from spreading to other areas,” explains Gadhia.

He says basic set of rules are applied to the cameras to analyse trends, detect crop stress and show unhealthy parts of the farm.

Powerful infrared cameras

Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is used to determine crop health and stress, says Gadhia.

Powerful infrared cameras capture the data and provide feedback to the farmer notifying them of crop stress to prompt immediate intervention.

Irrigation management is achieved when thermal cameras are mounted on a multi-rotor drone to identify areas of the farm where water is present.

According to Gadhia, farm areas expected to be moist, but are not may indicate blocked irrigation pipes.

If the farmer instructs their camera to give different colours for varied moisture content of different areas of the farm, blue, for instance, may indicate wet soil while red indicates patches of dry soil.

Gadhia says a special drone known as the DJI AgrasMG1 is used for effective crop spraying.

He explains that the drone flies in a ‘zig zag’ manner to ensure all target areas are spayed. It also has four nozzles fitted to a pump to do the job unmanned.

The drone, according to Gadhia, can spray up to 10 acres in an hour and is therefore 60 times faster than manual spraying. It has a 10 kilogram payload and is fitted with a piston and alert to give warning of an empty tank. When the warning is received on a control computer, it is brought down to be re-filled.