APPLICATION OF DRONES IN LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT IN INDIA
The growing interests of users in the drone technology have developed new fields of application for it. Presently they are working in numerous areas viz medicine, military, forecasting, surveillance with a vast range of applications. Lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles will revolutionize spatial ecology (Anderson and Gaston, 2013). Agriculture and livestock farming have also not remained untouched. In fact, since last few years farmers are realizing the benefit of drones in agriculture. With extensive and expansive range of applications of drones in wide spectrum of agricultural activities like spraying, crop health and monitoring, mapping and surveying. Drones carrying cameras with special sensors can be used to measure pasture growth, but this technology is still in an early stage of development the drone equipped agriculture is surely to take its place in near future. Livestock management is still being governed by traditional farming systems and still has shown less willingness to adopt new technologies. The livestock farming depends on so many factors like genetics, raising the livestock, feeding, health care, grazing of proper nutritious food, gathering produce and selling it. All these activities along with monitoring and proper supervision of the staff amounts to lots of energy and time on the farmers’ part. The need of the hour is to make livestock farming less labour intensive less time consuming and more economical. Drone technology with its numerous applications may prove to be critical to bridge this gap. Monitoring livestock population is an essential part of the farm management. However, this may not be a trivial task, especially in very large properties adopting extensive (Barbedo and Koeningkan,2018)
“The adoption of modern technologies in agriculture, such as the use of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can significantly enhance risk and damage assessments and revolutionize the way we prepare for and respond to disasters that affect the livelihoods of vulnerable farmers and fishers and the country’s food security.” “José Luis Fernández”
Benefits of drones ———-
Ability to capture high accurate 3D maps! Provide way over When, How and Where the images are collected! Economic, Fast & Flexible Extremely useful in hazardous & hard-toreach areas Accessible & Easy to use Inherently safe.
Drone basic concept
One of the latest developments is the increase in the use of small, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, for agriculture. Drones are remote controlled aircraft with no human pilot on-board. These have a huge potential in agriculture in supporting evidence-based planning and in spatial data collection. Despite some inherent limitations, these tools and technologies can provide valuable data that can then be used to influence policies and decisions. Drones are used in various fields ranging from the military, humanitarian relief, disaster management to agriculture. The advantages that “an eye in the sky” provides when combined with analytic tools that can interpret the data and images to actionable information have ushered in a new revolution. However, priority in addressing issues related to privacy, safety and security is the key to the sustainable implementation of these technologies.
Drones and agriculture
Drones are transforming how agriculture and farming are done. By implementing drone technology, farms and agriculture businesses can improve crop yields, save time, and make land management decisions that’ll improve long-term success. Farmer’s today have a variety of complex factors that influence the success of their farms. From water access to changing climate, wind, soil quality, the presence of weeds and insects, variable growing seasons, and more. As a result, farmers are turning to high-level drone technology to help remedy these problems, and provide fast and efficient solutions. Agricultural drones allow farmers to obtain access to a wealth of data they can use to make better management decisions, improve crop yields, and increase overall profitability. Drones can be used to collect data related to crop yields, livestock health, soil quality, nutrient measurements, weather and rainfall results, and more. This data can then be used to get a more accurate map of any existing issues, as well as create solutions based upon extremely reliable data. The agriculture industry is no stranger to embracing changing technological trends to streamline business. The use of drones in agriculture is the next technological wave that’ll help agricultural businesses meet the changing and growing demands of the future. The United Nations has experimented with drones in various areas of its mandate ranging from humanitarian crises to agriculture. For example, the World Food Programme (WFP) has joined with the Belgian government to deploy drones in humanitarian emergencies (WFP, 2017). The usefulness of drones to facilitate quick data collection with greater accuracy together with providing a safer monitoring system in emergencies was a key element in testing this in the field during challenging humanitarian crises. FAO and Google (FAO, 2016) have partnered to make remote sensing data more efficient and accessible. Access to quality data is the key to making effective policies and interventions towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The use of drones in agriculture is extending at a brisk pace in crop production, early warning systems, disaster risk reduction, forestry, fisheries, as well as in wildlife conservation, for example.
WHAT IS LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT?
Livestock are animals that can be domesticated for their meat, milk, eggs, and by-products. One has to manage the animals for them to yield a profit. Having proper strategies in place is as crucial as having effective management systems because this will give birth to a steady income stream.
Understanding one’s livestock is integral in the process of domesticating them and making sure they reproduce quickly and effectively. Managing animals takes more time than any other process involved in the practice of livestock.
This may include several activities done throughout the livestocks’ different age cycles, which includes:-
- Proper sheltering
- Right climatic conditions
- Adequate nutritive diet
- Disease protection and remedies
- Herd monitoring
- Selective breeding
Livestock management requires proper knowledge of animal husbandry and commercial tradition to maintain good quality livestock and profitable trades.
NEED FOR TECHNOLOGY IN LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT
Livestock management is a time-consuming process and requires high investment. In case of low production due to improper management, investment capital becomes more than the revenue obtained and might lead livestock managers or farmers into debt. Thus to reduce investment capital and increase profit, certain types of machines and new technologies are used. These technologies make the whole management process easier, time-saving and prove to be cost-efficient. One such example of this is using drones for livestock management.
ROLE OF DRONES IN LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT
Drones are flying systems controlled remotely. Earlier, drones were used by the military before being re-purposed for use in different industries and sectors. With drones, cattle ranchers can easily keep track of herds and perform livestock management more efficiently than ever before.
For livestock management, drones can be used for:-
- Monitoring health: Manually monitoring hundreds of animals is challenging, and monitoring their health conditions becomes more difficult and time-consuming. However, drones these days are used to monitor livestocks’ health conditions. Equipped with cameras and thermal imaging scanners, these drones are capable of imaging livestock from a distance and measuring vital health conditions like temperature, weight, size, and visual ailments. This helps farmers in identifying and curing potentially sick livestock before their condition gets any worse.
Monitoring health using drones allows farmers to separate diseased livestock from the herd to avoid spread. Detecting illness during the initial phase increases the chances of survival by timely medication and vaccination, thus reducing the loss of livestock. - Herding: Maintaining a herd in large numbers, avoiding splitting, and preventing them from wandering is a task for farmers. This may require more man-force to manage; otherwise it will results in losing livestock. To avoid this, drones with high precision cameras are used to manage herds in pastures. This is done by:-
i) Counting and maintaining the total strength of the herd,
ii) Keeping track of each animal helps in finding the stray ones,
iii) Avoiding wanderings as drone’s sound makes livestock move in the right direction
iv) Saving time and human efforts. - Tracking pastures/Farm security: For the well-being of each animal, it is crucial to reduce all the possible threats like wild animals, poisonous plants, and broken fences in and around the pasture lands. Thus maintaining farm security is crucial in livestock monitoring. Drone technology is used for tracking pastures. They scan the images of possible threats on the farm and also help in getting rid of them.
One of the problems most farmers face is that livestock escape the farmland, and drones help resolve this issue by doing periodic inspections around the fences. This has helped farmers in maintaining farm security and preventing rustling.
Cattle counting and monitoring
The use of drones for monitoring livestock is slowly gaining pace and in various countries. Australia and Israel have already started using lots of cattle monitoring drones. Drones or UAVs can be used to detect and count the number of cattle heads Drones can fly a quick round of the cattle shed or field at any time and capture images or make videos. These images can be easily checked or visualized to check the number of the cattle or any activity in the farm Anyone can see live video of any place by sitting at a distant place with the help of these drones. They are especially helpful for night time monitoring due to human eye’s inability see in the dark (Veroustraete,2015). When using cattle monitoring and tracking drones farmers can use drones embedded with thermal sensing technology which can find any of the animals using their body temperature. The drones provide clear thermal images which easily reveal the difference between one animal from another. An observer drone hovers 90- 270 feet above the herd. This drone uses downward- facing stereo cameras to track motion. It determines the location and orientation of the cattle. The drones or unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) can help farmers with a way to remotely check on the location and health of each cow, allowing them address cattle health and safety issues much sooner.
Herding Cattle with Drones
As an era of automation and technology ushers in we have come across many reports of robots replacing human labour. Several countrieshave now explored the use of herding cattle and sheep with drones. Farmers can use a drone with a camera to locate the herd in the pastures and move it. This helps reduce the time it takes to move cattle. When you move a drone over the herd, they will move away from the sound of the drone. Many a times, some cattle move away from the herd It’s important to locate them and get them back with other animals in the herd. You can use the drone to make the stray animals move in the direction you want them to go. This is very useful in areas it’s hard to get to like hilly pastures where the herdsmen might have to walk a considerable distance of tough terrain and look for the livestock. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones can thus act as herders and can replace the dogs, the drone operators use these drones to keep an eye on the sick or escaped animals.
Farm Security
If one wants to look what’s in the bushes or around the trees or is there any trespasser or intruder it becomes very cumbersome for vast pasture land or fodder production area holder, by placing cattle drones to provide consistent information from remote areas, farmers can get a 360° view of their land. These drones can be used to spot other illegal activities too. These drones also help farmers to keep thieves away from the cattle field as they can be easily detected by thermal drones. It is much faster to respond and comparatively safer than any personal involved and comparatively saves more time and labour. One way to automate the process is putting an RFID tag on each animal which can then be used to accurately read and locate each animal with a drone. Using computer aided vision a programmable drone can detect a stray animal in a pasture and move it towards the rest of the herd. Moreover, if a rancher wants to locate a particular animal and check its condition, he would just have to type in an RFID number and the drone will go out and find it on the range.
Real-time livestock monitoring ———–
Some drones are equipped with thermal imaging cameras that enable a single pilot to manage and monitor livestock. This allows farmers to keep track of livestock a much greater frequency, and with less time and staff investment. The drone operator can quickly check in on herd to see if there are any injured or missing livestock, as well as see livestock who are giving birth. Drones are used to keep an eye on the heard at all times, a once costly and time-intensive task. Plus, thermal imaging will also help to keep an eye out for any livestock predators, which can be a huge advantage for some farm owners. Drone technology is a phenomenal innovation that continues to have far-reaching effects across today’s society, transforming our lives and the way we do business. The agricultural industry seems to have embraced drone technology with open arms, using these advanced tools to transform modern farming. High-tech drones allow farmers, and the drone pilots that operate them, to increase efficiency in certain aspects of the farming process. From crop monitoring to planting, livestock management, crop spraying, irrigation mapping, and many operations drones are extremely useful. Drones are helpful for farming management in terms of observing, measuring, and taking action based on real-time crop and livestock data. It erases the need for guesswork in modern farming and instead gives farmers the ability to maximize their yields and run more efficient organizations, all while enhancing crop production.
Concerns:
There are some factors to be considered, since animals can’t express themselves as clearly as humans. How will livestock respond, adjust or accustom to the presence of drones.one possible solution may be to monitor the level of the stress hormones to know the amount of distress as the stress encountered by the animal shall after all reflect in the productivity of that individual animals. Using manned aircraft for surveying cattle farms, has many drawbacks like higher operational costs, elevated noise levels that can disturb animals. (Christie et al., 2016). Several studies have documented changes in animal behaviour due close-proximity drone flights. Drones normally may tend to fly at lower level and may disturb the animals. Numerous studies have observed responses of wildlife to drones. In India with the fodder area and pasture land on the decline the drone technology seems to have limited use for small scale farmers who have limited land holding. Some concerns regarding the technical expertise still remain a concern like handling and processing of the captured data Also the UAV flight time is battery dependent and the aerial flight time is somewhere between 10- 30 minutes.
Finding the Best Drone for Cattle Farming
There are a few things that should be considered when buying a drone for checking cattle: 1) Drones for livestock management must have decent battery power. About a half hour of flight time is usually enough to see fences, ponds, mineral feeders, and cow location in a pasture. However, if your requirements are advanced and if you need more aerial time, look for drones with more battery power. 2) It should have a high-end camera for capturing video and images. Since you would want to see a bird-eye view of your herd or pasture, the camera should be good enough to give you quality video and images. 3) The drone should be able to withstand 25 mph winds. Before you make a purchase, do check how windy it gets in your area. If your drone can’t withstand high winds, you may end up losing or damaging your drone. 4) The companion mobile or tablet app that comes with the drone should be user-friendly and have features to manage operations associated with ranch management. Though initially designed for military use, UVAS”s /drones they have are now widely used in various fields. A essential feature for most UAV application in livestock is an integrated camera/thermal scanner, as it will allow images capturing. Some advantages of drones were listed which include time saving and reduction in human labor. However, there are a number of challenges limiting UAVs, most prominent among which is cost.
The Use of Agri-Drones is on the Rise
A lot of drone-based agricultural projects are undergoing in India. Consider the following real-life scenarios:
- On 26th January 2022, the Government of India has also released a certification scheme for agricultural drones, which can now carry a payload that does not include chemicals or other liquids used in spraying drones. Such liquids may be sprayed by following applicable rules and regulations.
- On 23rd January 2022, to promote the use of drones for agricultural purposes and reduce the labour burden on the farmers, the government of India has recently offered, a 100% subsidy or 10 lakhs, whichever is less, up to March 2023 to the Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institutes, ICAR Institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras & State Agriculture Universities.Additionally, a contingency fund of Rs.6000/hectare will also be set up for hiring Drones from Custom Hiring Centres (CHC). The subsidy and the contingency funds will help the farmers access and adopt this extensive technology at an inexpensive price.
- On 16th November 2020, the Indian government granted the International Crops Research Institute (ICRISAT), to use of drones for agricultural research activities. With this move, the government hopes to encourage budding researchers and entrepreneurs to look at budget-friendly drone solutions for more than 6.6 lakh Indian villages.Though the usage will be conditional, yet it is a revolutionary step. Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, emphasized that drones are poised to play a big role in agriculture, especially in areas including precision agriculture, improvement in crop yield, and locust control.
Use of Drones in Agriculture and Improving Farmers Income
Use of Drones for the Crop-protection in India is new and the country is gaining experience. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) initiated a network program during September, 2021 where in Research on use of Drones and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for timely monitoring of crop growth, health and managing it with enhanced input use efficiency were taken up. Drone and AI technology are used to monitor near real-time crop health. Drone is also used for variable rate technology for pesticide and liquid fertilizer applications, mapping of water spread area, water sampling, mapping macrophyte infestation and aquaculture management practices, etc. Drone and AI technology are also used for precision livestock farming, particularly its health monitoring.
For enhancing farmers’ income, the emphasis is on adopting a multi-dimensional strategy, which includes increase in production through creation of resources for improving irrigation; effective use of inputs; reduction of post-harvest losses; value addition; reforms in agriculture marketing; minimizing risk and providing security and assistance, and promotion of allied activities. The Government has adopted several developmental programmes, schemes, reforms and policies that focus on higher incomes for the farmers. All these policies & programmes are being supported by higher budgetary allocations, non-budgetary financial resources such as creating Corpus Funds like Micro Irrigation Fund etc. There have been several reforms to unleash the potential, e.g. Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs along with necessary financial support under AtmaNirbhar Package (Agriculture). Under AtmaNirbhar Bharat special attention is being paid for creation of infrastructure for which “Agri Infrastructure Fund (AIF) has been created with a size of Rs.100,000 crore. Other special initiatives include Supplementary Income transfers under PM-KISAN; Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY); Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY); Increase in Minimum Support Price (MSPs) for all Kharif & Rabi Crops ensuring a minimum of 50 percent of profit margin on the cost of production, Bee-Keeping; Rashtriya Gokul Mission; Blue Revolution; Interest Subvention Scheme; Kisan Credit Card (KCC) that now offers production loan to even dairy & fishery farmers besides agricultural crops etc. The adoption of Drone technologies in agriculture has a potential to revolutionize the Indian agriculture. In order to make Drone technology affordable to the farmers and other stakeholders of this sector, financial assistance @ 100% cost of drone together with the contingent expenditure is extended to ICAR/SAU/State Governments/State Government Institutions under Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) for its demonstration on the farmer’s field. Apart from this, farmers are getting timely information and advisory services through online and telecom mediums such as Kisan Call Centre and Kisan Suvidha App so that farmers can make decision for increasing crop productivity. During last three years (2019-2021) a total of 946 field crop varieties have been released comprising of 379 of cereals, 146 of Oilseeds, 168 of Pulses, 55 of Forage Crops, 158 of Fibre Crops, 26 of Sugarcane and 14 of other crops (potential/minor crops). In addition, 288 varieties of Horticultural crops were also released. These improved varieties are helping farmers to increase their income.
DR SHYAM PRASAD,ICAR
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