Drones are the way of the future for Ag industry
Nearly 500 people turned-out for the Riverside County AG Expo at the Indio Fair Grounds Wednesday afternoon. The event was chock full of break-out sessions, industry speakers and displays touting the second-largest contributor to the Coachella Valley’s economy.
Industry experts said that one of the biggest issues facing American farmers right now is a shrinking labor force and that is why recent improvements in technology are so important. While crops may be harvested on the ground, some of the latest farming technology is in the air.
“Every farmer uses drones,” organizer Bob Wright told KESQ News Channel 3’s and CBS Local 2’s Katie Widner. “Farming is such a competitive industry right now and we’re competing against being able to buy a lemon cheaper from Chile than we can buy one from the Coachella Valley.”
Wright said everything is the Farmer is computerized nowadays, but part of the problem is labor.
“Lately we’ve been shifting our focus to the labor side which is becoming less and less available every year,” said Ernesto Beltran of RDO Water.
Beltran said AG companies, like the one he works for, are constantly working to help farmers to improve the way they do things with less helping hands, like new irrigation techniques or the RDO Retrieving Program.
“(It) pretty much means extract the date from underground, lift it above ground and retrieve it out of the field,” he said.
Experts said drones are still in their infancy in regards to the farming world, however, tech farmers are becoming more and more dependent open them.
“This is a sprayer drone. It can spray about two areas every 15-minutes,” said exhibitor Austin Gibson.
Gibson works for Drone Nerds, which sells modifies drones for farm work. The drones use cameras and GPS coordinates to help farmers see if there is any damage or diseases happening on their fields.
“We have it set up to have a slant-range, multi-spectral camera on it, which can tell you the health characteristics of your crop,” he said about one model. “If you have any kind of infections that may be spreading and to give you more control over your crops so you can produce better yields.”
The drones can also help farm owners check on livestock that may be spread out over a large acreage of land. Gibson said the technology can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000.
