Drones Part 2

Drones Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Only a few years ago the word drone meant a worker bee. But today we hear about drones everywhere and the sky seems to be the limit on what they can do. Agriculture has embraced the technology. Dr. Deon van der Merwe is a Kansas State University professor.

VAN DER MERWE: It is not showing any sign of diminishing in the face of progress. In fact if anything, the pace of progress is accelerating. Things are just becoming more reliable, more useful and cheaper. I think that the future looks very bright because this is a technology that is going to be accessible to many farmers.

He says you have to ask the question…”What will be the impact?”

VAN DER MERWE: Will it improve the profitability of the farming operation and I think the message there is quite clearly, yes. Because the use of this technology enables you to be more efficient in terms of your use of fertilizers and other chemicals that are necessary as input costs in a farming operation.

This allows you to lessen your input costs while not compromising your yields which makes your operation more profitable.

VAN DER MERWE: And because the cost of the data itself is becoming less and less and within reach of the individual farmer, it’s becoming more and more clear that the way forward is to make use of this technology because it increases profitability. But then the other part of it is there is no real downside in terms of other impacts.

And we will explore that tomorrow.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.