Precision Agriculture

With focus on UAV

Christina Littler, Jamie Weisman, Jay Zollmann

March 10,2015
Executive Summary
This report answers the question, What are the drivers of change in the agriculture industry and how
are UAVs and precision agriculture helping to meet the needs of those drivers? Agriculture as an
industry has been stagnant for some time in terms of technological advances. With the threat
of food insecurity coupled with a predicted growth in population, it’s become necessary to
increase efficiencies in large scale farms. Precision agriculture is a highly disruptive technology
in the agriculture industry and is currently at the start of the S-Curve. The technologies involved
help to increase efficiencies. UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, are currently utilized as data
collection platforms for this up and coming industry. The specific use and current application of
UAVs is detailed in the report. With the use of other technologies from distinct companies
combined with UAV use, precision agriculture is sure to become the way of the future. This
report touches on the companies involved, the technology specifics, the challenges, and the
benefits. We conclude by speaking to what’s to come in this technological space.

Background
For more than 12,000 years people have cultivated crops guided by their forefathers’ experience.
Over time, farming techniques have evolved from simple sowing and harvesting to machine-
enabled, synthetics-enhanced workflows. The widespread adoption of tractors, combine
harvesters, and farm implements driven by internal combustion engines in the early 20th century
altered the farming landscape, enabling mass farming in a way that previously was not possible.

However, technological advances in the farming industry have been outpaced by increasing
economic and population burdens. With production costs for farming in the United States
topping $220 billion annually, due in part to growing fertilizer and fuel expenses, prices paid by
farmers are overtaking increases in finished goods returns.1 Simultaneously, demand for more
crops has exploded. The United States population has grown from 76 million to more than 300
million in the last century. By 2050, the world’s population is projected to grow to 9.3 billion, an
increase of a third over its 2010 population.2 Increased food consumption is predicted to have

1
USDA
2
Sands
deleterious effects on the environment as a whole, causing pollution of key waterways,
destroying biodiverse ecologies, and contributing to global warming.3 Jonathan Foley, Director of
the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, contends that not only do
agricultural pursuits produce more greenhouse gases than all of the world’s cars, trucks, trains,
and airplanes combined, but they also are a major drain and source of pollution for the world’s
water resources.4 He, and many other industry experts, espouse the need to develop more
efficient methods of using resources and maximizing crop production on existing farms.

The Solution: Precision Agriculture

The mounting pressure of meeting demand while preserving natural resources is driving
innovation of more efficient farming methods. Minor improvements in existing equipment are
insufficient – slight upward movements in the flattening S-curve are no longer enough. One
disruptive technology that is contributing to the solution is precision agriculture, which can be
broadly defined as a class of technologies that manage variations in fields to improve output,
reduce production costs, and save resources. These technologies take into account the shifting
environmental components of agriculture – weather, soil type, vegetation, precipitation – to
optimize growing conditions. They also can measure variables such as crop yield, terrain
features/topography, organic matter content, and soil status metrics including moisture levels,
nitrogen levels, pH levels, electrical conductivity, magnesium, and potassium. Once
implemented, precision agriculture promises to achieve greater sustainability, higher
productivity and crop yields, and economic benefits.5 Precision agriculture encompasses a wide
variety of technologies, including:

 GPS
 Remote sensing
 Geographic information systems (GIS)
 Variable rate technology (VRT)

3
Kremen
4
Nat Geo Feeding 9 Billion
5
CEMA website
Much of this technology has been made possible by the advent of GPS and GNSS (global
navigation satellite systems), with which spatial variability can be determined. Of precision
agriculture’s many forms, one of the more interesting applications is the transition from high-
resolution satellite imagery to low altitude unmanned aerial vehicles. Some of this technology
has accuracy down to a few centimeters worth of resolution, with an increased flexibility not
provided by satellite imaging.6

In the past 10 years, precision agriculture has begun its migration from the greenhouse and the
laboratory to the fields of America’s heartland and the world. Today, 70-80% of all new farm
implements include a precision farming component. Due to drastic cost reductions in monitors
and controllers, precision agriculture has become easier and more cost effective for farmers to
install and use.7

Strategic Direction of UAVs in Precision Agriculture

Existing Technologies

UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, are currently utilized as

data collection platforms. Standard UAVs consist of a platform,
a global positioning system (GPS), a ground control station,
sensors, and a data processing and integration application.
Platforms can either be fixed wing or rotary wing. A fixed wing
platform is more efficient and can cover ground more quickly.
However, a fixed wing platform is less stable, requiring a
catapult and/or a larger takeoff and landing area. Rotary wing platforms are generally easier to
fly, require smaller takeoff and landing areas and are more stable. Because of these qualities,
the average small farm (<500 acres) would likely prefer the rotary wing platform, while a larger,
less price-sensitive farm will place higher value on the more efficient fixed wing platform.

6
Primicerio
7
CEMA website
Loaded into the UAV platform are a sensor, camera, and a GPS, which are the most complex and
critical components of the device. For plant biomass data, a near infrared sensor is generally
preferable.8 These near infrared sensors range in price anywhere from a few hundred to a few
thousand dollars depending on quality and fidelity. The full color camera is utilized in tandem
with the infrared sensor for maximum cross-referencing of visual data. Data from these sensors
are integrated with a GPS, which triangulates spatial positioning by measuring the angle to
satellites in orbit. The GPS tells the platform where it is and, as importantly, links the data
collected to its spatial position. These systems can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several
thousand dollars, ranging in locational accuracy from 15 meters to several centimeters.

During flight, the UAVs are controlled by human operators at the ground control station (GCS),
which communicates with the platform via radio wave. Operators utilize Google maps or similar
resources to inform the GPS about field location and borders. For example, to increase accuracy,
the operator may take a GPS reading of the corners of the field. Then, using a mission planning
computer application, the route of the UAV can be planned utilizing the various parameters of
the sensor(s) being utilized. The software basically plans a route over the entire field much like
a lawnmower mowing a lawn.

If collecting good data is the most challenging part, the most time consuming and expensive part
is processing collected data into a useable form for integration into precision agriculture systems.
The UAV’s lawnmower pattern must be stitched together into one continuous image and data
set. The data must then be interpreted and appropriately acted upon. For instance, if the near
infrared data shows that crops in a certain area are not healthy, then this area will require
additional pesticide. Further complicating the analysis is that plant health metrics must be
individually interpreted by crop type and by locale. Once the calculations are complete,
recommended treatment instructional data is uploaded, either manually or through the cloud,
to a physical platform, tractor, or system (a sprayer or irrigation system). This final step relies on
the development of algorithms by commercial providers, specific to crop type and locale.

8
http://agmapsonline.com/?p=624 Boughton
Globally, UAVs are being outfitted with additional components, including fertilizer and pesticide
applicators, which can respond in real-time to incoming data. However, due to the Federal
Aviation Administration’s reticence to approve such platforms in the United States, these
systems are more prevalent in Japan and other foreign countries.

Existing UAV Products

AgEagle (John Deere affiliation) – AgEagle’s fixed-wing flyer with uTHERE flight controller and
Canon S100 camera goes for about $12,500. It is built from epoxy, and is very
durable. AgEagle’s platform is catapult launched. It can cover 600 acres in approximately 30
minutes. A cloud-based aerial agronomic imagery solution is offered in partnership
with MyAgCentral, a division of DN2K. AgEagle is a fully integrated package that streamlines the
process of capturing, storing, processing, viewing, and sharing aerial images.

Agribotix – Agribotix concentrates on data services — not the UAV platform. The company
markets a proprietary software package to deliver geo-referenced aerial images immediately
after a flight and high-resolution color and NDVI maps within hours of collection. These images
are hosted on Agribotix’s servers for access from multiple devices, including mobile devices so
that growers can take them into the field. Although not its focus, Agribotix markets a platform,
the Hornet, which is a simple fixed-wing UAS suitable for agricultural applications. The also
offer a seasonal lease. It runs on open-source hardware and software to keep costs low.

PrecisionHawk – PrecisionHawk’s fixed-wing Lancaster platform is a lightweight design which is

configured to allow for a multitude of different sensors. PrecisionHawk also has a data service
called PrecisionMapper, which is cloud-based, and gives the user the ability to upload, store,
process, and share aerial image data.

Precision Drone – Precision Drone LLC is an Indiana company that manufactures multirotor
drones built specifically for crop surveillance. The company also offers Precision Vision, which
is a crop health software package.
SenseFly – SenseFly’s fixed-wing flight UAV, the eBee Ag drone is a hand-launched and self-
landing platform constructed of foam and carbon fiber. It has detachable wings, can fly for 45
minutes and can cover up to 2,470 acreas in a single flight. The platform includes a 12
megapixel Canon S110 NIR (near infrared) still camera as standard which is electronically
integrated with the aircraft’s autopilot.

Trimble –Trimble’s UX5 fixed wing platform is a fully autonomous, flight programmable
platform that comes with a dedicated Windows-based rugged tablet. It is popular outside the
United States, but hopes to enter the U.S. market in the near future.

Market and Technology Drivers and Barriers

As seen in the chart below found during our research, there are both business and market
drivers as well as technology drivers within the precision agriculture space. As mentioned, most
of the drivers relate to increasing needs for efficiencies in farming and advances in technology
itself. Barriers in these categories include mostly uncertainties in both the concept and the
technology. More details on these drivers and barriers are included in the Opportunities and
Challenges sections below.
http://www.beechamresearch.com/files/BRL%20Smart%20Farming%20Executive%20Summary.pdf

Opportunities
Suzanne Moran explains that a farmer, like any business person, needs good and timely
information to succeed. To formulate an effective growing strategy, a farmer needs to know
three things: (1) which conditions are relatively stable during the growing season; (2) which
conditions change continually throughout the growing season; and (3) information to diagnose
why their crop is thriving in some parts of the field and struggling, or even dying, in other parts.
Increasingly, large-scale growers are using information gathered by aircraft and satellite-based
remote sensors to help them gather these types of information.9

UAVs and precision agriculture technology can inform a farmer of these three things. Information
is only so helpful, though, and a truly innovative, disruptive technology will be able to take the

9
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/PrecisionFarming/
10
http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/droning-science
gathered information and go a step further. UAVs have the ability to separate crop treatments
in-field. Basically, as the device moves throughout the field, it can use memory and intelligence
to apply the precise amount of the needed crop treatment only where it is needed. The device
will track the treatment and trace the improvement of the crop throughout the next days or
weeks.

UAV technology avoids problems commonly caused by cloud coverage such as loss of connection
and lapse of information collection by using satellite survey. It can be argued that many of the
benefits from UAV can be obtained as well with a manned aerial vehicle, which would be less
upfront cost and less complicated to learn initially, but data from available UAVs are “just more
timely, can be tailored to the project, and are cost-effective.” 10

Due to the benefits listed above, it’s clear that UAV technology has a competitive advantage over
other agricultural technologies of the moment.

Challenges
Despite the promise of UAVs in the precision agriculture space, the technology still must contend
with a number of strategic and technological challenges. For widespread adoption to take effect,
buy-in from potential users is not enough. In a market where government subsidies and tax
breaks heavily influence profitability, politicians and non-governmental organizations must also
show support for the technology, perhaps in the form of financial incentivization. The dramatic
process shift that UAVs as a farming standard would necessitate requires significant advocacy,
education, and support from key opinion leaders in all three stakeholder communities. To date,
this type of backing has not reached a critical mass.

Beyond the political component, UAVs, and precision agriculture in general, are struggling to
demonstrate utility in tangible ways. However, strong cases for PA’s effect on the bottom line
have yet to emerge. Existing research on yield monitoring and zone management offer conflicting
metrics for success or take into account differing components for optimization.10 The industry
needs to first establish a common standard for measurement, and then launch a series of studies

10
McBratney 2005
exploring the utility of UAVs under various conditions. Among other things, industry experts
encourage exploration of decreasing the yield gap, minimizing environmental impact, balancing
cost of implementation with avoidance of negative crop events, and maximizing ROI.11 The result
of such research should ideally positively answer the question posed by Whelan and McBratney:
“Can the scale of variability in space and time be quantified, an optimal scale identified, and does
it present any management opportunities?”12 Until such consistent and validated arguments for
precision agriculture’s economic superiority emerge, adoption of the technology will be limited.13

Currently, UAV use in precision agriculture is still a fairly complex process. This process is one
where large farms may be able to buy and utilize a system on their own. However, with the
average farm size in the United States at less than 500 acres, the average farmer is not likely to
take on something that is as complex as this on his own. Furthermore, it is unlikely that it would
be cost effective for the average farmer to own his own system.14 However, it is entirely
reasonable to believe that there would be sufficient demand for an individual or small company
to set up shop in a town and to sell his services to farmers by the acre. An additional opportunity
would exist for a large scale company such as AGCO or John Deere to sell franchises with defined
territories and markets. Both of these models would allow the owner/operator to specialize and
gain proficiency with a somewhat complex system. Furthermore, this business model minimizes
idle capacity and mitigates the risk to farmers while the agricultural UAV systems struggles
through the initial phase of the S-curve where there is still some disagreement over standards
and the systems are still relatively expensive due to a lack of scale in production. In the future,
when the systems become more user friendly, one can also envision a system where a UAV
sharing system much like NetJets may become a viable business model.
Looking to the Future
So far precision agriculture has been based on soil health. But according to Ian MacRae,
Professor in Minnesota’s department of entomology, “Within five to ten years, we should be

11
Zacepins, Whelan 2000
12
Whelan 2000
13
Bullock
14
Primicerio
able to associate particular wavelengths of light with insect populations, with weed populations
and with disease populations.” Basically, in the future aerial vehicles will be able to detect
populations of insects and apply targeted insecticide appropriately. MacRae continues, “We’re
going to see precision agriculture greatly assisted in a very, very short period of time.15,16

It’s only a matter of time that precision agriculture becomes the norm instead of thought of as
the novel technology it is today. “It’s called precision ag right now. I think eventually it will just
be called farming because most people will be using this,” says Terry Johnston of HTS Ag, a 360
Yield dealer in Harlan, Iowa. He feels that very soon farmers can make decisions about how to
correct yield issues in specific areas that won’t have an impact on the whole field.

We all hear about the internet of things. Precision agriculture is a key player in this space. In the
future there are plans to merge data collected with UAVs with satellite data already being
collected by the government. This will make unprecedented contributions to precision
agriculture. It’s predicted that by applying precision agriculture and big data we can increase
productivity by another 10 percent to 30 percent and make farmers more profitable. Of course,
the question of who owns this data is a problem right now that is being explored and discussed.
It is currently a roadblock to the convergence of such information. The principles currently state
that farmers own the information generated on their farms, but that it is their responsibility to
agree upon data use and sharing with other stakeholders, such as tenants and the technology
provider.17

In order to succeed, players in the precision agriculture industry must form partnerships within
industry. This is key to survival and growth, especially partnerships such as Mobile Network
Operators with agricultural Equipment makers. For example, Trimble (MNO) and Connected
Farm (agricultural technology solutions) have paired up.

According to Delta Farm Press, “Trimble will be adding a profit and loss reporting feature to its
Connected Farm Field application—web-based field data management tool growers can use to

15
BTN
16
Agrinews-Pubs
17
BusinessWire
manage field boundaries, task data, crop health maps and precipitation data. With the new
feature, it is now possible for growers to analyze field profitability and make better financial
decisions for their operations. Integrating this financial information creates powerful profit and
loss graphics that can enable growers to determine which fields are most profitable and why.”18

Conclusion

The global precision farming market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.09% from 2015 to
2022, to reach over $6.43 billion by 2022. Between the pending corporate partnerships and the
dire need for efficiencies in large scale farming, precision agriculture is sure to become the
“norm”. Since this technology is yet to hit the steep slope of the S-curve, we expect many
advances in the precision agriculture industry in the next 10 years. Technological and market
drivers set UAVs up for success as part of the larger precision agriculture industry. As barriers
are overcome, and especially once the data mining is standardized, trust will build for the
potential of UAVs amongst those currently in the industry. It’s an exciting time to be in this
space and watch the disruption of the agriculture industry as we knew it.

18
Delta Farm Press
Sources

Bullock, David S. “Simulating the Value of Information Generated by On-farm Agronomic Experimentation Using
Precision Agriculture Technology.” No. 152370. International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, 2013.

Primicerio, Jacopo, et al. "A flexible unmanned aerial vehicle for precision agriculture." Precision Agriculture 13.4
(2012): 517-523.

Sands, Ron. “With Adequate Productivity Growth, Global Agriculture Is Resilient to Future Population and
Economic Growth.” USDA Feature: Farm Economy. http://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2014-december/with-
adequate-productivity-growth,-global-agriculture-is-resilient-to-future-population-and-economic-
growth.aspx#.VOaxr_nF-T8

Zhang, Chunhua, and John M. Kovacs. "The application of small unmanned aerial systems for precision agriculture:
a review." Precision agriculture 13.6 (2012): 693-712.

http://www.precisionag.com/guidance/teejet-releases-two-gnss-products/

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/PrecisionFarming/

http://www.beechamresearch.com/files/BRL%20Smart%20Farming%20Executive%20Summary.pdf

http://deltafarmpress.com/trimble-adds-profit-loss-feature-connected-farm-solution-app

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150206005802/en/Research-Markets-Global-Precision-Agriculture-
Market-Analysis#.VN5GlfnF90Y4

http://btn.com/2015/02/13/btn-livebig-minnesota-drones-point-to-the-future-of-farming/

http://gcn.com/blogs/emerging-tech/2015/01/agriculture-iot.aspx

http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/news/opinion/who-owns-precision-technology-data/article_46152c34-9c26-
11e4-99c0-eba8d95e86cf.html

http://agrinews-pubs.com/Content/News/MoneyNews/Article/Precision-agriculture-takes-starring-
role/8/27/11916

– Drone Analyst article “Drone Tech Winners and Losers at the Precision Ag Conference 2014”