Drones Are Leading The Way In Crop Spraying

To Tim Wise, whose sugar cane-growing family had always battled with the quality of crop spraying delivered by aeroplane, drones seemed to be a workable alternative. This led to research into drone technology in 2016, and the subsequent creation of Precision Agricultural Systems. The company has since been the driving force in having crop-spraying drones approved for commercial use in South Africa. Wouter Kriel reports.

- Wouter Kriel

FAST FACTS

• Tim Wise went on a world tour in 2016 to investigate drone technology for crop spraying in sugar cane production.
• His company has since forged a solid working relationship with DJI of China, the world’s largest manufacturer of consumer drones.
• Larger drones with bigger payload capacity now make crop spraying economically viable.

Sugar cane responds well to a ripening spray at about eight weeks before harvest. But Tim Wise, who grew up on a sugar cane farm in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), remembers how his family struggled with uneven and inaccurate delivery of this spray by crop-spraying aircraft.

Sugar cane in South Africa is usually cultivated on hilly terrain with steep gradients, and the average field size is small, at around 6ha. These factors, combined with coastal winds and obstacles such as electricity pylons, natural bush lines and cell phone towers, make low-level flying difficult and dangerous.

To make matters worse, the ripening spray is often essentially a low-concentrate herbicide, so it is crucial to prevent spray from drifting onto other crops or neighbouring cane fields at a different growth phase. Together, all these factors frequently result in inaccurate application by aeroplane, and hence failure to achieve full and even coverage over the crops requiring ripening.

The problem led a group of KZN farmers to fund a world tour in 2016 to investigate drone technology as an alternative to aircraft for crop spraying.