Published by EMIR Research.
The utilisation of drone technology in farming could be a real game-changer in the agriculture industry.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry (MoA) Minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub underlines that the rapid changing landscape in the Malaysian economy, from agrarian to industrialised has caused the agriculture industry to lag behind from the others like China and Japan.
Ensuring a sustainable agriculture growth is vital to meet with one of the country’s development goals which are to elevate the income status of farmers, fishermen, livestock breeders and agro-based entrepreneurs.
To achieve this vision, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad encourages the agriculture industry to rebuild and reform towards technology transformation and modernisation.
Not only that, with the global demand for calories expected to grow by almost 50% over the next 40 years, the question on many minds is how to produce enough food to feed the world population.
As global population is growing extensively along with the global change of climate conditions, the adaptation among farmers to utilise the new-generation technologies is critical to address these emerging challenges.
This is where drone technology comes in, to modernise the agriculture industry so it can fulfil future’s demands.
Drone is an unmanned aircraft that can fly by remote control or fly autonomously through software-controlled flight plans in their embedded systems, working in conjunction with onboard sensors and GPS.
While drone has various purposes such as videography and photography, the basic function of drone is to fly and navigate.
To fly, a drone is embedded with battery or fuel, rotors, propellers and frame. The frame is made of lightweight composite materials to minimise the drone’s weight and also increase the manoeuvrability during flying.
Controller is also needed to operate the drone with the usage of radio waves or WI-FI that act as a communication line between them.
Drone has been used widely in many areas such as military, for search and rescue, traffic monitoring as well as agriculture.
In agriculture, drone is used to achieve and improve precision agriculture – to increase crop yields and profitability but at the same time lower the numbers of traditional inputs needed to grow crops like land, water, fertilizer and herbicides.
In other words, drone erases the needs of guesswork in modern farming and increase farmer’s certainty on their plantation techniques or any decisions regarding their crops.
The success of the farmer’s plantations is highly depended on several factors that the farmer has no control over, such as from water access to changing climate, wind, the quality and moisture of soil, the occurrence of weeds and insects, inconsistent growing seasons and many more.
Due to this, farmers need to utilise drone technology in their work to help them provides fast and efficient solutions. The key to efficiency here lies in their ability to adjust, which is impacted by the availability of real-time data.
By gaining access to this vast pool of data, farmers can obtain a more accurate map of existing issues of their crops and fields, save time and reduce expenses.
In agriculture, the technology used for drones enables them to capture a lot of accurate information compared to the aeroplanes. The software embedded in the drone is responsible to collect data and delivers a report that can be understood by the farmers which contain insightful information for better farm management decisions.
Let’s now explore how drone can be used for agriculture, more specifically.
First, drone can estimate the condition of the soil, which is vital to make the right decisions regarding the fields’ fertilisation.
Traditionally, farmers are required to collect this data by paying physical visits to the field and gather the metrics of the soil conditions manually, which consume a lot of time and energy. But now, thanks to the drone technology which is equipped with agricultural smart sensors, these tasks can be done quickly and precisely.
Apart from that, agricultural spraying can also be done to reduce human contact with harmful chemicals, pesticides and fertilisers. Also, drone can determine the optimal amount of chemical or fertilisers needed to spray on the crop to ensure that they are used safely and responsibly.
Since most of these agricultural products are imported, the price is increasingly expensive due to the weak ringgit, thus, by being able to determine the crop’s optimal fertilisers, it saves a lot of money.
When it comes to spotting treatment, drone can detect any infected crops 10 days before it becomes visible.
When crops are infected, the photosynthetic activity decreases and that affects the chlorophyll content. This is where drone can be very helpful when it is able to see instantly what human eyes are unable to see – measuring the amount of chlorophyll in crops.
Consequently, an early warning can be given to the farmers to prevent large-scale crop losses.
Moreover, as drone is equipped with high-resolution cameras, the images of every single acre of crops can be gathered. This gathered data is can be used to do plant counting and crop emergence tracking.
This task which is known as plant count analytic can identify how many of the sown seeds roughly emerged into a healthy plant. This is very useful information to decide if they should reseed or not.
Driven by growing population levels and changing climate patterns, the need for efficient agriculture is significant.
All in all, the practice of drones in the agriculture is the next high-tech wave that will aid agricultural businesses to meet the changing and growing demands of the future.
Nurafifah Mohammad Suhaimi is Research Assistant at EMIR Research, an independent think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research.
Diterbitkan oleh Berita Harian, gambar daripada Berita Harian.
Penggunaan teknologi dron dalam sektor pertanian semakin popular dan mendapat tempat dalam kalangan petani moden.
Teknologi ini penting bagi memastikan pertumbuhan ekonomi pertanian mapan untuk merealisasikan salah satu matlamat pembangunan negara, iaitu meningkatkan status pendapatan petani, nelayan, penternak dan usahawan tani.
Hal itu turut ditekankan Menteri Hal Ehwal Ekonomi, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, yang menyatakan kerajaan sentiasa berusaha memperluaskan inovasi dan penggunaan teknologi baharu bagi memperkasa serta meningkatkan produktiviti sektor pertanian, sekali gus meningkatkan pendapatan dan ekonomi negara.
Bukan itu sahaja, dengan permintaan global yang dijangka tumbuh hampir 50 peratus dalam tempoh 40 tahun akan datang, persoalan sering timbul adalah bagaimana untuk menghasilkan makanan cukup bagi menjamin kelangsungan kehidupan manusia.
Kini, jumlah penduduk global kian bertambah, tetapi apa merisaukan perubahan iklim global semakin ekstrem. Ini memberi impak besar terhadap sektor pertanian kerana ia akan menjejaskan hasil pengeluaran pertanian negara.
Di sini teknologi dron dapat memodenkan industri pertanian supaya memenuhi permintaan masa depan. Dron digunakan secara meluas dalam banyak bidang seperti tentera, operasi mencari dan menyelamat, pemantauan lalu lintas serta pertanian.
Dalam sektor pertanian, dron digunakan sebagai kaedah pertanian ketepatan bagi meningkatkan hasil dan keuntungan tanaman, pada masa sama, mengurangkan jumlah input diperlukan untuk penanaman seperti tanah, air, baja dan herbisida atau racun herba.
Dengan kata lain, dron membantu petani memastikan teknik pertanian yang tepat digunakan dan membantu mereka membuat keputusan jitu mengenai tanaman mereka.
Seperti kita maklum, hasil pertanian bergantung kepada beberapa faktor yang tidak dapat dikawal petani. Antaranya akses air, perubahan iklim, angin, kualiti dan kelembapan tanah, kejadian rumpai dan serangga serta musim pertumbuhan tidak konsisten.
Oleh itu, bagi mengatasi masalah, petani digalakkan mengaplikasi teknologi dron dalam kaedah pertanian.
Namun, bagaimanakah dron dapat membantu sektor pertanian?
Dron membantu petani sebelum musim penanaman bermula menganalisis keadaan ladang. Teknologi ini berupaya memetakan keadaan ladang dalam bentuk imej tiga dimensi (3D) dan menunjukkan kawasan bermasalah.
Hasil analisis dapat digunakan untuk menentukan pola maksimum penanaman benih. Kini, petani bukan sahaja dapat menjimatkan masa, malah meningkatkan hasil tanaman.
Melalui imej ini juga, pengiraan tanaman dan pengesanan kemunculan tanaman baharu dapat dilakukan. Tugas ini dikenali sebagai analitik tanaman dapat mengenal pasti berapa banyak benih bercambah. Maklumat ini sangat berguna untuk menentukan sama ada benih perlu disemai semula atau tidak.
Selain itu, kaedah penyemburan racun boleh dilakukan dron yang dapat mengurangkan risiko manusia dengan bahan kimia, racun perosak dan baja berbahaya. Dron juga dapat menentukan jumlah optimum bahan semburan diperlukan serta memastikan semburan dibuat secara rata pada tanaman.
Di Kedah, proses menyembur racun menggunakan dron dan teknik Ultra Low Volume (ULV), iaitu penyemburan halus secara kabus memudahkan penyerapan cairan ke dalam tanaman padi. Ketika proses semburan dilakukan, tekanan kipas dron akan menghasilkan aliran angin ke bawah dan membuka pokok padi supaya bahan kimia sampai ke pangkal tumbuhan.
Bukan sahaja dapat mengeluarkan hasil tanaman lebih baik, malah dapat menjimatkan masa petani. Ini juga dapat mengurangkan kebergantungan terhadap pekerja asing, seterusnya memberi peluang pekerjaan kepada lebih ramai anak muda.
Dron juga dapat mengesan tanaman dijangkiti penyakit 10 hari lebih awal sebelum dapat dilihat dengan mata kasar menggunakan kamera inframerah. Kewujudan kamera ini pada dron membolehkan petani melihat kehadiran atau ketiadaan kulat dan bakteria dalam tumbuhan.
Dengan cara ini, petani boleh mengetahui sebarang jangkitan pada tanaman dengan lebih cepat dan segera menyelesaikannya, sebelum ia menjangkiti tanaman lain.
Kesimpulannya, teknologi dron memberi penyelesaian segera untuk meningkatkan kualiti dan kuantiti tanaman. Kewujudannya membuktikan teknologi tidak perlu dikhuatiri untuk digunakan.
Nurafifah Mohammad Suhaimi merupakan Pembantu Penyelidik di EMIR Research, sebuah organisasi pemikir bebas yang berfokuskan kepada pencernaan saranan-saranan dasar strategik berteraskan penyelidikan yang terperinci, konsisten dan menyeluruh.
