- {Announcer] Digi-Key, Supplyframe, and Amphenol RF present, Farm different.
A three part series about people, technology and the challenges of modern agriculture.
- Technology gonna change the world and the area industry including agriculture.
- [Announcer] In this episode, we look at the rise of drones in Ag-Tech, replacing the Stick and Rudder on crop duster airplanes with a joystick and a screen.
- Yeah, here we are in the America's Heartland, and you look at the agriculture and you know, I've pulsed people and said how is it transforming your life?
And you could see in a couple of very evident ways, monitoring the fields, using drones, they're able to detect exactly how much insecticide or fertilizer or water needs to be applied for optimal crop growth.
- [Announcer] The world's most recognizable drone maker, DJI headquartered in Shenzhen.
A global hub for hardware production, has made significant strides forward in the development of drone technology.
DJI has a fleet of drones dedicated to the agriculture industry with a focus on turning everyday farmers into licensed pilots.
Ronnie Lu at DJI agriculture explains the importance of educating farmers on new drone technologies.
- We also do this kind of pilot training, and we have this branch of Da jiang and then UTC academic, which provide training to our pilot, and in total we have trained more than 20,000 pilot worldwide.
- [Announcer] Drones replaced several outdated types of equipment bridging the gap between aerial and ground farm management by offering crop monitoring and precise protection solutions at lower costs.
- In less than half a year, digital agricultural drone pilot has provide drone spraying service for more than 6.7 million hectare farming world wide.
- [Announcer] Dr. Rex Sun, a PhD and professor in agricultural engineering, shares how drone technology can greatly impact the agriculture industry.
- Drones is a great tool for future farmers for precision agriculture, to spot spray, also scouting, to scouting your farming, also to detect if there is any spot like a disease in your farming area, also creating the mapping for your farm.
Drone technology I see is have some very beneficial points for the future farmers.
- [Announcer] According to estimates from the association of unmanned vehicle systems, farms will eventually account for 80% of the drone market worldwide.
Studies have also shown that corn, soybean and wheat farmers, could save up to 1.3 billion annually by leveraging drones to increase crop yields.
- Agriculture is a very traditional industry with long history.
Farmers has already have their own ways to deal with the crops, so we need to do a lot of work to convince them, to use this kind of new technology.
- [Announcer] Increasing investments into precision agriculture, are fueling the development of new platforms that integrate operators, suppliers, equipment, and data.
Agricultural solution packages utilize both hardware and software to offer crop protection, monitoring, and variable treatment procedures.
DJI's line of drones utilize the latest in IoT technology equipped with 12 megapixel cameras, 4K video and aerial thermal imaging.
- Our drone is fully automatic, what our pilot needs to do is simply type in the parameters like the speed, the spacing, the height, and then just like on the screen and then the drone can take off.
- [Machine Record voice] To prevent potential safety risks.
- [Announcer] Their AI systems have the ability to identify different types of landscape like trees or water, greatly improving the accuracy of maps and flight planning.
One example is an orchard mode, which uses P4R to scan and map areas based on height, shape and the number of trees.
This allows the drone to generate flight paths for its spraying mission.
This intuitive mapping software allows farmers to see operation records, reports, device management, and other critical applications, DJI's ability to reach and educate farmers ensures that they have all the tools they need to tackle the challenges of the modern agricultural landscape.
- You know Digi-Key we like to use the term word enabler.
What we're trying to provide is those solution blocks to our customers for them, the engineers who have the creative ideas to do that, and that will enable these smart folks out there in the world to continue to come out with their revolutionary and then life changing designs.
- [Announcer] Drones are just one example of how technology is redefining what it means to grow and harvest feed, in today's connected world.
To farm better, we must farm different.
- In our next episode, we're traveling across the glade to Fargo, North Dakota, to see how Emerging Prairie is putting tomorrow's technology into the hands of farmers today.