Agriculture Drones to Transform Farmers Lives in Thailand

BANGKOK – An Agriculture Drone resembling a Goliath mechanical creepy crawler, a highly new technology drifts over a rice field in the region of Phetchaburi, in focal Thailand.

Wachiwarat Aungsupanith, the 27-year-old CEO of automaton creating organization Bug Away, figures these cutting edge contraptions could change Thai horticulture in an interview with CNN.

Showering fields with pesticides and composts, the automatons – which can conceal to 60 sections of land multi-day – could lift harvest yields, spare time and make backbreaking fieldwork a lot simpler, as indicated by Bug Away. Another further improvement could be the introduction of agricultural solar PV panels for more sustainable and cost-effective farming.

With agriculture forming a major part of the Thai economy, the potential market is sizeable.

According to research and advisory company Oxford Business Group, agriculture in Thailand was worth $31.6 billion, and accounted for 8.5% of national GDP, in 2016, while a third of the country’s labour force work in the sector.

Thailand 4.0 — a government initiative introduced in 2016 that aims to transform the economy — targets growing farmers’ incomes seven-fold by 2037.

Along with rice — the biggest crop — other staples include tapioca, rubber and sugar.

Agriculture Drones Innovators

Chinese company DJI pioneered the use of agricultural drones in 2015, and other manufacturers followed suit.

Yamaha began selling a model in Japan last year, citing a growing trend of using drones for small agricultural plots that are difficult to spray with unmanned helicopters.

The laws governing the use of drones to spray crops vary around the world. In the UK, for example, Crop Angel is working to get permission to use Agriculture Drones to spray commercial agrochemicals and pesticides.

Agricultural drones only arrived in Thailand in the last three years, says Aungsupanith, and their use has not yet been widely adopted.

But he’s not the only one who sees potential in the market, with Thai company Novy winning awards for its sprayer drones.

Although some might baulk at the Agriculture Drones price tag, which ranges from $2,400 up to $9,000, depending on the model, Aungsupanith hopes younger farmers will embrace the opportunity to use drones.

He says his company has cheaper models under development.

If drones become widely affordable, we might see a real buzz around Thailand’s farms.

Source: CNN