The use of drones in agriculture has been researched for years, but growers have been reluctant to fully adopt drones as a labor solution. While that adoption sees continuous and gradual growth; drone manufacturers, distributors, and drone solution providers must do a better job at persistently "connecting the dots". In today's AgTech Spotlight post, Cypress AgriTech helps growers and agtech industry stakeholders connect those dots, by outlining the different use cases for drones in agriculture, options for growers to contract these services, and even ways farmers can purchase their own drones and perform the tasks themselves without relying on someone else's schedule.
Our team at Cypress AgriTech first became aware of drone solutions and their positive impact in agriculture back in 2019, but we did not officially partner with anyone in this vertical until 2020 when we found horticulture imagery experts Aerobotics (more on this soon). We then realized we needed a sound imagery solution for row crops such as vegetables and strawberries. Though Aerobotics was a worthy partner for tree fruit and nuts, amongst other crops, we found that the imagery provider Solvi was the best route for drone imagery solutions in ground crop applications. We continue to search for partners in other areas that we will explore in this post: drone spraying applications and the releasing of beneficial insects using drones. There are many great companies out there, but the existential question remains: who will provide these services if a grower is not yet ready to purchase their own drones?
Use Cases
Because there are various unique use cases for drones in agriculture, the best way to differentiate and explore these methods is by outlining these options one at a time:
Imagery Solutions - Solvi and Aerobotics are drone imagery solutions. An overwhelming majority of farmers will walk the rows of their crop fields to manually count their plants at various stages, assessing for potential pest or disease outbreaks, soil moisture inefficiencies, and estimate crop yields for harvest production based on the rows they walked. This information is valuable for agronomists, farm managers, PCAs, produce sales teams, and more. The time taken to complete such a mundane task adds up, and as a result of seeing disease in one location of the field, assumptions are often made that leads to overtreating a field with spray applications. Using a well-vetted, highly capable drone imagery software like Solvi, entire fields can now be flown in hours' time, taking thousands of micro images as the drone flies, those images are then uploaded into our Solvi platform, which then analyzes plant counts, sizing, spacing, plant health & stress, giving the farmer a clear and accurate picture of what's going on in the field.
Spray Solutions - There are a few drone spraying companies out there that we have explored, and we remain excited about the potential growth of this agtech vertical. Most of these companies, such as Rantizo, seem primed for growth and well ahead of the game. Spraying with drones can drastically reduce chemical and fuel costs, as some DJI drones are now quite capable of autonomously spraying for great lengths. In a perfect world, Cypress AgriTech believes that growers should be empowered to own a fleet of drones, using drone imagery to quickly and accurately assess problem areas of their field, and then the spray drones can be called in from the bullpen, utilizing spot spraying as a follow up method to what we found to be an in-field problem from the sky.
Beneficial Insect Solutions - Many growers are already aware of the positives to releasing beneficial insects on their farm. The technology now exists to allow for beneficial insects to be released by way of drone applications. This is a vertical within the agriculture drone application sub-industry that we are still vigorously exploring. In our opinion, there seems to be many worthy providers, but not enough ground is being covered to allow for consistent mass adoption. Releasing beneficial insects from an aerial application such as a drone saves time and provides an effective way to ensure these insects are released exactly where the farmer wants them. Cypress AgriTech hopes to bridge the gap between distributors, providers, and growers in the near future.
Efficacy
Using high resolution drone imagery software solutions can provide accurate plant count, and therefore, yield estimate predictions of up to 98% (per several growers using this technology; call Cypress AgriTech for references)
Drones cut down time spent walking the fields for data collection, spray applications, and the releasing of beneficial insects, in addition to the reduction in labor, chemical, and fuel costs
In many cases, flying a drone to collect plant level data will allow for quicker and more informed decisions regarding potential replanting, prioritizing harvest locations, identifying plant stress, and allocating treatment options.
Solutions to Challenges in Drone Adoption
Drone technology in agriculture has many use cases, and solution efficacy and sustainability speaks for itself. Learning these solutions and understanding which ones currently available to the agriculture market are best in class is a challenging proposition. The industry is not yet ready for direct mass adoption from farmers, however, farmers can rely and benefit from local service providers delivering these solutions on a multi-annual basis. Government regulations prevent mass adoption from growers who may want to procure their own drones, as the FAA requires a Part 107 license to fly or operate autonomous drones for commercial use. For drone spraying, additional licenses are needed to apply spray applications by way of manually operated or autonomous drones. Cypress AgriTech provides drones and plant scouting software for collection of plant counts, sizing, spacing, health, stress, and more. We believe that as we fly more farms, particularly recurring flights for single farms, growers will become more comfortable with the process of flying a drone, in addition to trusting the data after validating its accuracy.
Drones in Use
As of October 2024, Cypress AgriTech has flown over 25 different farms in California, Arizona, and Florida in crops such as strawberries, cabbage, romaine & iceberg lettuce, broccoli, sweet corn, wine grapes, and hemp to name a few. Growers looking for a quicker, more accurate way to predict yield estimates and identify pest/disease outbreaks have trusted Cypress AgriTech and our Solvi software to deliver validated results. Only a few growers have chosen to purchase a drone and license the Solvi software from Cypress AgriTech, but we anticipate that adoption to increase substantially by 2030, as drone applications become more accessible and commonplace in commercial agriculture. While we are aware of many farmers in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and Southeastern U.S. using spray drones and drones for beneficial insects, we strive towards finding the best-in-class solutions and service to help deliver these solutions to growers in the years to come.
With a network of sales and service representatives and reliable phone support, drone solutions by Cypress AgriTech can be trusted and trying it out for a flight or two is made accessible to growers on the West Coast & in the Southeast. Reach out to us at sales@cypressagritech.com to learn more about our flexible flight options or procurement of your own drone solutions.
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