Precision agriculture is becoming popular. In the next five years, the market for weeding and crop maintenance robots will grow as much as 11 times, while the demand for agricultural drones will increase 8 times in a decade, according to calculations by the UK market research company IDTechEx.
Drones and robots
Every year, the market of agricultural drones and robots grows quite rapidly – in 2021 totaled 322 million Eur (341 million US dollars), for comparison in 2017 – 133 million US dollars. in 2021 the weeding robot market alone accounted for about 21 million Eur (US$ 22 million).
The growth is driven by problems such as water scarcity, overuse of chemicals, loss of biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions and eutrophication, which agricultural robots and drones can address, researchers say.
Precision agriculture
To reduce the use of chemicals and their adverse effects, precision agriculture is becoming increasingly popular, and as technology improves, it is gradually moving away from the indiscriminate use of fixed rates that have historically dominated agriculture to a variable rate approach.
Significant increases in chemical and fertilizer prices also encourage farmers to use resources and chemicals sparingly and rationally, looking for alternatives such as mechanical weeding or precise control of chemical use on a plant-by-plant basis.
Data collection from plants and crops
Precision agriculture requires a lot of data collected from plants and crops, which is almost impossible to collect manually. “Precise chemical application or mechanical weeding also requires precise control, making it an ideal option for automation. In order to apply precision agriculture, automation using robots becomes the best solution”, IDTExEx researchers are convinced.
The report highlights that weed control is one of the most common applications for agricultural robots. It is a precision agriculture method that uses computer vision and a weed detection algorithm to identify and remove them mechanically or chemically.