Agrodrone: Project Options Analysis, Irrigation Management, and Crop Monitoring

This article discusses the project options analysis, irrigation management, and crop monitoring using agrodrones. It covers the social, environmental, and economic impacts of using agrodrones in agriculture. The article also includes references to studies on the topic.

Running head: AGRODRONE 1
Agrodrone
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Agrodrone
Content
Part 4 Project options analysis...............................................................................
4.1 Project options considered..............................................................................................
4.2 Stakeholder identification and consultation....................................................................
4.3 Social impacts.................................................................................................................
4.4 Environmental impacts..................................................................................................
4.5 Economic impacts..........................................................................................................
4.6 Overall evaluation of socio-economic and environmental impacts................................
4.7 Financial analysis............................................................................................................
4.8 Risk comparison.............................................................................................................
4.9 Integrated analysis and options ranking.........................................................................
Part 5 Irrigation Management…………………………………………………12
Part 6 Monitoring of crops…………………………………………………….13
Part 7 Improving farmer's decision making, an increase of sustainability and
improvement of strategies……………………………………………………..14

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Part 4 Project Options Analysis
1.1 Project options considered
The major options for the agrodrones include soil and field analysis, planting, crop
spraying, crop monitoring, irrigation and crop health assessment.
1.2 Stakeholder identification and consultation
Major stakeholders in the drone project options are mainly farmers and research
scientists. The drones will improve farmer's and researcher’s decision making, increase of
sustainability and improve their strategies
1.3 Social impacts
Agrodrones are safer to use since there are propelled remotely without any driver. The
use of agrodrones in crop monitoring, irrigation and crop health assessment at the local
level is socially empowering.
1.4 Environmental impacts
Agrodrone help protects wildlife and the environment as a whole. Drones have the
potential of reducing air and soil pollution while it does not release any pollutants
1.5 Economic impacts
Agrodrones provide a cost-effective way of protecting crop health and observing overall
farm performance.
1.6 Overall evaluation of socio-economic and environmental impacts
Agrodrones being safer to use, environmentally healthy and cost-effective, it is an ideal
technology to use in field analysis, planting, crop spraying, crop monitoring, irrigation
and crop health assessment.
1.7 Financial analysis

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Agrodrones are relatively expensive. For complete, ready-to-fly agrodrones, they cost
between $1500 and $2500. However, there are advanced agrodrones that cost more than
$8000 such as DJI Smarter Farming Package.
1.8 Risk comparison
Even though agrodrones are expensive, they are cost-effective in the long run. Regarding
social, economic, and environmental impact, Agrodrones are safer to use,
environmentally healthy and cost-effective, making them the idea to use in field analysis,
planting, crop spraying, crop monitoring, irrigation and crop health assessment.
1.9 Integrated analysis and options ranking
The options for agrodrones identified included soil and field analysis, planting, crop
spraying, crop monitoring, irrigation and crop health assessment. Among these options,
the one that poses a risk is crop spraying as a breakdown in agrodrone can lead to
unnecessary spraying that may result in air pollution. Agrodrone has the potential of
changing the whole farming experience as well as the positively impacting global
economy.
Part 5 Irrigation Management
Irrigation management is aimed at increasing the production of food, contributing to
economic development as well as reducing poverty via improvements in performance,
productivity and sustainability in the agriculture under irrigation and the entire irrigation system.
Irrigation scheduling takes into account some factors including the following. The rate of
precipitation of the equipment used in irrigation. This entails the speed at which water is applied
in mm/hr. Uniformity of distribution of the irrigation system. This entails how uniform the water

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is applied regarding percentage. The rate of soil infiltration which entails the quickness of water
absorption. The slope of the land under irrigation. And the available soil capacity of water.
Agrodrones are used in irrigation management to increase the efficiency of watering and
in the detection of possible pooling or leaks in irrigation. Agrodrones possess multispectral,
thermal and hyperspectral sensors that enable them to identify the specific areas of the field that
require irrigation (Malveaux et al., 2014). Agrodrones are also capable of detecting the
vegetation index circulation showing the heat signature and the amount of energy emitted by
plants.
Part 6 Monitoring of crops
Crop monitoring is an essential aspect of agricultural management during the
developmental stages of a crop. It is essential to a farmer as it allows for implementations of
timely interventions that ensure optimal yields. Some stress factors often hinder crop
development, and they include the following. Poor availability of water resulting from in-season
drought, fungal, bacterial or viral infection, insect attack, extreme temperatures, plant
competition, uncontrolled use of capitals, and nutrient deficiency (Courault et al., 2017).
Majority of these factors often arise from the shortcomings experienced in labor. Regular
observation is usually vital in monitoring and can be broken into identification and inspection.
Whereas visual inspection is applied in monitoring pest levels, record-keeping is also essential.
Agrodrone is effective in crop monitoring as it can reveal to farmers issues regarding
irrigation, pest, and fungal infestation, as well as variations in the soil. Also, drones can perform
a survey on the crops on a periodical basis hence helping farmers identify trouble spots.
Part 7 Improving farmer's decision making, an increase of sustainability and improvement
of strategies

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Agrodrones help improves farmer's decision making in several ways. One way is in
thermal imaging. The drone's multi-spectral sensors provide farmers with a view of how crops
more so crop canopies grow under various growth practices. Drones imaging provide winter
farmers more so wheat farmers with a better picture of where and how a number of their plants
are sprouting at the end of winter hence help them improve on strategies (Tripicchio et al., 2015).
Agrodrones are also important at the crop cycle onset. They help farmers to come up with the
best planning decisions through soil analysis. Finally, agrodrones increase sustainability through
increased yields as they help in identifying problems that limit yield with ease.

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References
Courault, D., Demarez, V., Guérif, M., Le Page, M., Simonneaux, V., Ferrant, S., & Veloso, A.
(2017). The contribution of remote sensing for crop and water monitoring. In Land
Surface Remote Sensing in Agriculture and Forest (pp. 113-177).
Malveaux, C., Hall, S. G., & Price, R. (2014). Using drones in agriculture: unmanned aerial
systems for agricultural remote sensing applications. In 2014 Montreal, Quebec Canada
July 13–July 16, 2014 (p. 1). American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
Pandya, A. B. (2018). Modernizing Irrigation and Drainage for a New Green Revolution:
Outcome of 23rd ICID Congress. Irrigation and Drainage, 67(1), 148-149.
Tripicchio, P., Satler, M., Dabisias, G., Ruffaldi, E., & Avizzano, C. A. (2015, July). Towards
smart farming and sustainable agriculture with drones. In Intelligent Environments (IE),
2015 International Conference on (pp. 140-143). IEEE.