Drones Do What?

Drones have blew up over the past few years with a main focus in photography and videography and some futuristic ideas in package delivery. There has intact been research in one other key area that could improve the world we live in today, and that is agriculture. gGrowing up on a family farm in upstate New York has kept me in the know of new and evolving agricultural technologies, and as of recent my uncle who owns a vineyard bought a drone but for reasons that might be different then you would expect.

A common problem with agriculture is the application of herbicide and incleticed with potential runoff risks, so I sat down with my uncle Daren and had him explain to me how he was using this new technology. He began to show me his drone and tell me that they use video footage from the drones HD camera to scan the vineyards looking at the colors of the leaves and a calculated spray chart to tell them if the application of spray was placed evenly and effectively. Then they import the files into a program to scan and tell you where to apply more product and where to avoid spraying. This can then be uploaded to an agricultural GPS that tells you where to apply the spray and how much, cutting down on runoff or the over application of spray material to the plant. This is better for the consumer because we all want to ingest less chemicals and good for the producer because it drives the cost of production down allowing him to purchase more land to grow more grapes and provide more product for the world.

All things being said we need to improve the agricultural system to allow for us to feed the ever-growing population and technologies like this allow us to do more with less. Feeding the world is a task we have struggled with and now it is time to use technology to prevent world hunger and allow everyone the right to eat and sustain a healthy life.