Yield, Resources and Land Use: The Future in Ag Improved by Drones

by Matt Gardner, CEO, California Technology Council

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS, or "drones" for some), are quickly finding applications in fields as diverse as entertainment, infrastructure and agriculture. For entertainment in particular, the ability of a drone to capture images is a key to performance.

Longitudinal data collection makes that image capture more valuable to agriculture and utilities over time.

For agtech applications, the mashup of mapping to image collection holds the promise for increased yields, better resource allocation, lower and smarter water consumption and optimized land use.

As the Farm2050 initiative of Innovation Endeavors puts it, "We are excited about how advances in data science & robotics now enable us to rethink the way we seed, cultivate, and harvest food. As resources are not growing, we believe that innovation is fundamental to overcoming this challenge."

A surprising agtech theme emerged for CTC's June First Pitch: Aerospace + Drones event. Attendees will hear directly from Innovation Endeavors about the Farm2050 initiative, plus startups like SlantRange and TerrAvion.

For more information on First Pitch: Aerospace + Drones, please click here.