Prospects for flying drones in crop production in Ukraine

Интернет пестрит тематическими сайтами об использовании drones in agriculture, unprecedented prospects, economy of everything and everything, avalanche-like growth of profits. At the same time, the interest of agrarians is extremely cautious. If a few years ago at agricultural exhibitions the sky was dark from various drones, then in 2019 there were an order of magnitude fewer such demonstrations, which undoubtedly reflects the market trend. Did the use of this robotic technology not live up to the hopes of the producers? Let's try to understand the reasons, and there may be several of them:

• extremely insufficient methodological support of production;
• high price of devices, andespecially consumables for them:
• сервисные услуги;
• конфиденциальность данных.

Зарубежный опыт использования дронов

Зарубежный опыт триумфального шествия дронов трудно масштабировать, с учетом наших реалий. В Китае, который благодаря компании DJI занимает лидирующие позиции на мировом рынке дронов, разработана государственная программа развития беспилотных технологий и внедрения летающих роботов в сельском хозяйстве. Аналогичные подходы в США. Украина имеет свои регламенты в вопросах развития и внедрения беспилотных технологий, и, на наше убеждение, сформирует свою программу развития этих высокоэффективных инновационных технологий в самых разных отраслях, а в сельском хозяйстве различные беспилотники станут привычным средством, выполняющим самые разные задачи.

Drones as a component of precision agriculture technologies

A global trend in plant growing isprecision agriculture technologies, which provide for a differentiated approach within one field, which is essential increases the biological and economic efficiency of technological techniques, first of all, the application offertilizers and protective means. The times of the USSR, when fertilizers were cheap, affordable, supplied to even the most remote farms under the state program, have passed irrevocably, and the question of their rational application has become extremely urgent. Now there is a trend of growth in the cost of plant production, namely mineral fertilizers. The involvement of farms in the cultivation of fodder grain, which is less demanding of fertilizers, is also very risky, taking into account the reduction in the number of livestock in the country.

In technologically developed countries, the problem of optimal use of fertilizers was understood long ago and systems of differentiated application were developed for ground equipment based on methods of spectral assessments of plant condition. The most famous ones include GreenSeeker from Trimble Agriculture (USA), CropSpec from the Japanese company Topcon Positioning Systems, and N-sensor from Yara International from Norway. Such equipment made it possible to reduce the cost of fertilizer, obtain a better harvest and contribute to the improvement of the ecological situation.

The GreenSeeker system (photo from Trimble Agriculture website https://agriculture.trimble.com)

However, mass implementation of such equipment did not happen in our country for a number of reasons:

• high price - the Greenseeker set costs about UAH 117,000; in addition, when borrowing the entire technological chain (seeds, equipment, agrochemistry, etc.), - the main profit is received by the technology supplier, not the owner of the agricultural enterprise; harvest, whereas the maximum profit is more preferable for households; 129
• это оборудование создано для реализации устаревшего критерия оптимальности – максимальный урожай, тогда как более предпочтительна для хозяйств максимальная прибыль;
• недостаточное экспертное сопровождение, - для применения системы нужны калибровочные зависимости спектральных показателей растений от количества азота; техника в Европе и США применяется не первый год, и такие зависимости есть, но они созданы для их типовых сортов и гибридов; для наших сортов требуется адаптация подобных технологий;
• possibility on the market is a new trend that can make itself known very loudly in the foreseeable future; trade wars have become the realities of modern times, and there is a real possibility of falling under one or another sanctions with restrictions on the supply of equipment or its components. good prospects for implementation in agrarian practices in our country.

В этих условиях дроны имеют неплохие перспективы внедрения в аграрные практики именно в нашей стране.

• The high resolving power of spectral systems forUAVs makes it possible to obtain detailed maps of vegetation indices, suitable for planning operations. Modern drones are capable of surveying up to 10,000 hectares per day, so you need to buy a limited number of systems or order a flight from third-party organizations. Today, when ordering 1,000 hectares, the cost of ready-made maps is about UAH 35/hectare. Modern equipment allows you to get ready-made maps after a while after landing the drone.


К дронам на агровыставках всегда повышенный интерес, как к относительно малым, задача которых мониторинг...

• If there is information about the real condition of the entire field, it is possible to take into account the trends of the grain market and achieve maximum profitability. In addition, when using drones for remote sensing, it is possible not to buy newequipment for applying tank mixtures, but to modernize the existing one by equipping it withsystems позиционирования (GPS, Galileo, Глонасс). Иными словами, благодаря дронам получить технологические возможности оборудования следующего поколения;
• For varieties of crops for which spectral calibration characteristics are not provided, it is possible to establish small experimental plots with different modes of mineral nutrition. This will make it possible to decide on the optimal dosage of fertilizer on the spot after the flight. At the same time, there will be no binding to specific producersagrochemicals;
• Drones and especially their spectral sensors belong to high-tech robotic equipment, but their dimensions and weight are relatively small for various delivery methods... In addition, part of the equipment specification already has local localization.

...and big, already functional...

...and very big...

...or even with internal combustion engine

Thus, we are confident of good prospects for crop production with thisinnovative equipment.