Application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for Small Scale Precision Farming in Botswana

Abstract

This paper is focused on the application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) commonly known as Drones on agricultural crop production. The aim is to present the technology on how it can be used in precision crop production to improve crop yield and increase production. To show the effectiveness of the UAV in managing agricultural activities and avail precise information needed by farmers and the government to plan and forecast production. UAV have been used in many industrial applications and agriculture has a huge potential to be a beneficiary. UAV can help farmers to monitor their crops, pests, diseases and can be used to improve the land tenure. Farmers need precise information on soil and crop conditions, as well as monitoring variability across the farms. They also need accurate and up to date information about their farms, crop health, yields and the environmental conditions of their farms and surrounding land. Manned aircraft and satellite images have been used but not effective because of low resolution, high altitude and high cost. Only large commercial farms benefited because the farms are homogenous with well-defined boundaries. Small scale subsistence farming boundaries are of irregular shape and the farms are small. Small farms can be managed by using the more economic small UAVs that produce very high resolution images at low altitude. This study has improved the UAV methods of data acquisition and processing and produced precise agricultural geospatial information. During the process of capturing and processing agricultural information, the study identified six main components of UAV data acquisition and processing and produced a UAV data processing system. Weeds have been identified and extracted from crops using UAV multispectral imagery. The information on spatial soil and crop variability has been produced in maps and geospatial databases for planning and decision making purposes. This study can be used by other researchers to improve methods and system of UAV application in agriculture and to avail agricultural geospatial information for decision making.