{"id":7254,"date":"2024-04-16T14:57:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T14:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/?p=7254"},"modified":"2024-04-16T14:57:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T14:57:58","slug":"aerobotics-drones-help-the-worlds-fruit-and-nut-farmers-boost-their-crop-yields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/aerobotics-drones-help-the-worlds-fruit-and-nut-farmers-boost-their-crop-yields\/","title":{"rendered":"Aerobotics Drones Help the World’s Fruit and Nut Farmers Boost Their Crop Yields"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nA South Africa-based drone company is helping fruit and nut farmers worldwide to maximize their crop yield with the help of sophisticated aerial mapping and data collection systems enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI).\u00a0 The 9-year old drone firm is already operating in 18 countries.\u00a0 Its largest market by far is the United States, primarily California, followed by Australia, Spain and Portugal. Its customers produce tens of millions of tons of fresh produce every year; with the help of AI systems they\u2019ve seen their yields \u2013 and their profits \u2013 skyrocket.<\/p>\n

Aerobotics is part of a growing trend among global drone companies to specialize in \u201cprecision\u201d agriculture \u2013 the targeting of inputs \u2013 water, seeds, fertilizer and pesticides \u2013 to areas of a farm where they can do the most good.\u00a0 Armed with sophisticated AI-enhanced sensors, the drones can detect areas of highest soil fertility and crop stress and determine the precise amounts of water, seeds, fertilizer and pesticides to apply to each area, conserving resources and reducing waste. They can also help model the likely trajectory of crop yields over time, enhancing a farm\u2019s strategic planning and marketing operations<\/p>\n

“We work with a range of fruit and nut producers across the U.S., from citrus and table grape growers in California, to apple producers in Washington, to nut growers in Arizona and New Mexico,\u201d Aerobotics CEO James Patterson.\u00a0 \u201cWe have mapped over 600,000 acres of farmland in the U.S., and growers are uploading over 1 million images of fruit per month through our platform, using our system to scale their knowledge.”<\/p>\n

Paterson is no newbie.\u00a0 He first became involved with cutting-edge AI and drone technologies as a master’s degree student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in agricultural applications.\u00a0 Soon afterward, he partnered with Benji Meltzer, an expert in computer vision and software systems, to found the now 60-strong Aerobotics team.\u00a0 The company boasts a total of 22 investors and has raised $27.1 million to date over several investment rounds, including a fresh infusion of $17 million from 5 new investors in the last two weeks alone.<\/p>\n

Aerobotics\u2019 AI systems are amazingly sophisticated but also extremely user-friendly.\u00a0 Farmers can use mobile phones to direct drones over their properties to map images and collect data on the health status of their fruit and nut crops.\u00a0 Aerobotics software then feeds the data into servers that estimate crop yield, right down to the individual tree. The projections guide planning for packhouses, sales teams and retailers but the data can also be used to estimate future farm input needs.<\/p>\n

“As data accumulates on a farm, the models are fine-tuned to that specific environment. Essentially, the AI models learn and adapt to localized growing conditions, enhancing forecasting accuracy and enabling comparisons to previous years,” Paterson says.<\/p>\n

Aerobotics AI programs also produce a digital model of each tree on a farm, at scale, tracking it over time. “Each tree is conceptualized as a factory that can be optimized to produce the highest quality fruit. Data is gathered by drones equipped with thermal and multispectral cameras, operated either by the grower or through our third-party pilot network,” Paterson notes.<\/p>\n

Aerobotics\u2019 website is replete with case studies of enhanced crop yield and increased revenue due to the use of AI systems to boost precision agriculture.\u00a0 In the company\u2019s native South Africa, Aerobotics has worked with Kriegler Farms to tailor the company\u2019s farm input use to enhance the volume and quality of seedless grape production.\u00a0 Over three years, with AI-generated data, Kriegler Farms was able to reduce fertilizer and ameliorant inputs by 75,208 lbs, resulting in a cost savings of $45 per hectare. \u00a0In addition, by assessing vine health variability, the company helped Kriegler ensure that each plant was sufficiently nurtured, thereby increasing yield by 9% and generating an additional $136,864 in revenue.<\/p>\n

Aerobotics faces stiff competition in the global agriculture drone market, which is expected to grow from $1.81 billion in 2023 to $8.1 billion in 2030, at a CAGR of nearly 24%.\u00a0 But the size and scope and rapid diversification of the market also allows for individual companies to carve out important sub-niches, as Aerobotics has among fruit and nut producers.\u00a0 Within South Africa, it\u2019s far and away the nation\u2019s leading drone start-up firm.\u00a0 With continuing cutting-edge technological innovation fueled by some of the world\u2019s leading technology investment firms \u2013 including Internet giant Naspers, one of the world\u2019 largest\u00a0 \u2013 the company\u2019s assured of a prominent place in the evolving precision drone market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A South Africa-based drone company is helping fruit and nut farmers worldwide to maximize their crop yield with the help of sophisticated aerial mapping and data collection systems enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI).\u00a0 The 9-year old drone firm is already operating in 18 countries.\u00a0 Its largest market by far is the United States, primarily California,… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}