Kyiv. “On the night of Tuesday, the Ukrainian defense forces shot down 28 drones…” – for two years now, Ukrainians have started their acquaintance with current news with these words every morning. It is not at all surprising that drones are perceived primarily as a means of war in the minds of Ukrainians. However, these drones are very useful in agribusiness.
It may be hard to imagine that five years ago agrodrones in Ukraine were modestly hiding on the sidelines of agricultural technology, but now they have won a rather large niche: they have turned from field monitoring tools into full-fledged production tools.
According to various estimates, drones account for 10-12 percent. technological area that is constantly growing. The founder of DroneUA, FAO drone expert Valery Jakovenko claims that Ukraine is the absolute leader in Europe in terms of integrating drones into agricultural technology.
Valerij, founder of DroneUAʼus Yakovenkoʼme
This is determined by the innovative thinking of Ukrainian farmers and the need to save basic resources: water, fuel, plant protection products, and most importantly, time, because they work where the conditions do not allow spraying.
Winged evolution
The year 2024 is said to be favorable for the next phase of the evolution of air technology, as the trend of technical rearmament has resumed in Ukraine, which has been held back by the uncertainty surrounding the war. This is evidenced by the increased market for agricultural drones, as well as the increase in the price of small-scale spraying services (the price of work is predicted to rise to 10 USD per hectare).
Roman Tkachuk, head of the Agrocopter company, illustrates the market situation with the following example: in 2021, he managed to sell just 20 XAG brand drones, and the same number since the beginning of this year. Among them are 10 of the latest ones XAG P100Pro model devices that almost double the performance of existing devices on the market. The main advantages of the new drone are greater payload and autonomy. It can transport a 50 l tank of plant protection products or an 80 l tank with fertilizers and siderates.
According to R. Tkachuk’s observation, drones (Ukrainians call them agrocopters) are more often used by producers in the western regions, where waterlogged fields cause problems to use traditional sprinklers, as well as in the southern regions, where, on the contrary, there is a lack of moisture, so it is very important to save water.
Inevitably, the question arises – should you buy drones or their services? According to Roman, it pays for farms with 50 to 5,000 hectares to have their own equipment so that they are not dependent on service teams. In addition, they will be able to provide services to their neighbors, which is an additional source of income. But large agricultural companies better use the services of drones, otherwise they will have to hire a lot of workers to manage a fleet of drones.
Differentiated drying
“In 2022, we had to carry out desiccation (drying) of sunflowers. We didn’t have a self-propelled sprayer, so drones were a suitable alternative for us,” says Andrii Atroshchenko, an agronomist at the Desnyanski zori farm. – We saw great advantages of this technology. First, there is no driving through the crops. Second, the operation can be performed faster and cheaper. Third, drones allow field experiments or spot operations. Fourth, after dealing with our tasks, we can help our neighbors. So we bought three XAGV40 drones.”
Andrii, agronomist of the farm “Desnyanski zori”.ʼyou Atroshchenkoas
Desnyanski Zori combined aerial technology with a remote control system for agricultural land Cropio. For example, he received a field monitoring map of soybeans of different maturity according to the NDVI index, and analyzed their suitability for harvesting. Crops were not dried in the entire area, but selectively. This saved a lot of chemicals and time, and got a higher yield. “A differentiated approach to drying is a trend of the last two years that has fully paid off,” concluded A. Atroshchenko.
And blueberries and blackberries…
It is one thing to use drones to spray traditional crops, quite another to spray orchards and orchards. Therefore, at the Victoria Sens farm, the last season has been devoted to investigating the suitability of this technology in the blueberry and blackberry areas, which are about 50 hectares.
The experiment, which aimed to determine the effectiveness of using drones in the fight against the hairy golden beetle, took place on an area of 1.5 ha. Insecticide, fungicide and “glue” were mixed, spread at 6 l/ha each, and the rest of the land was treated in parallel according to the same scheme.
“It was a risk, a test of efficiency, there were doubts about the result, but the experiment paid off completely,” says Oleksandr Yevpak, head of the farm.
Oleksandr, farm manager of Victoria SensʼI’m Yevpakʼme
Compare both options: both achieve 100%. efficiency result – all individuals were destroyed. Phytotoxicity to plants was not observed. Later, observing their development, nothing unusual was observed.
The advantage of agricultural drones is their lack of soil and weather conditions and the speed of work: 1 ha in 10 minutes, including preparation. During the rains of last spring, we had to take care of the main plantings, because the sprinklers could not get into the rows. However, in the experimental area, the drones operated without hindrance.
Another advantage of air technology, discovered while working on a blackberry plantation, is its use where rotating battens are used. In the summer, when they are in a horizontal position, so that the sprinklers reach the interrows, the trellis should be raised. It would take a lot of effort and time. Agrodrones allow you to avoid this unnecessary operation.
“We came to the conclusion that when spraying from the air, it is better to use systemic insecticides and fungicides, because contact insecticides are effective only at the point of contact, and systemic insecticides are absorbed by the plant. As a result, it is possible to avoid a situation where one part of the crown is not covered with the preparation.
During the experiment, we used the company’s services, but this option has some risks, for example, in the fall, we needed to urgently treat the blackberry area, but the company could not provide it immediately and planned a spraying time that did not suit us. Therefore, it is worth having your own drone so that it is always at hand,” O. Yevpak shares his experience.
Drone or sprayer?
Last year, the Step farm (working on 1,800 ha in the Cherkasy region) purchased a 30 m self-propelled sprayer Berthoud Raptor 4240. CEO Oleksandr Storozhuk does not hide his admiration for the reliability, performance and speed of the machine’s work.
However, when we ask which is more efficient – a sprayer or a drone, we hear the answer: “Last year, a drone was used for the first time to dry sunflowers. We calculated the costs, negotiated and came to the conclusion: it is useful! Yes, there is a war going on now, there are times when signals are lost and drones fall. However, this is not a big problem. And with the help of drones, the work was done on time and efficiently.”
Oleksandr Storozhuk, CEO of Step farm
By the way, over the past year, I heard advice from a dozen skilled farmers from different regions of Ukraine to use drones to dry sunflowers.
During the war, Ukrainian agrarians take care of more than just business. We mean precisely unmanned aerial vehicles. “Eight of our guys are currently serving in various units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and we are buying drones for each of these units. We are trying to find out who can allocate how much, and we always support our soldiers”, emphasizes O. Storozhuk.
Flax in wheat
Peasant farm “Oril-Agro” in the Kharkiv region is known for its unconventional approach to farming, successful No-till technology application and experiments with cover crops. Therefore, no one was surprised when the farm purchased a drone a few years ago XAG XP 2020. The goal of using a drone was to save time, resources, and most importantly, to fill a niche that was not covered by ground-based equipment.
For two consecutive seasons, all protection operations from sowing to harvest were carried out by drone in pea and canola fields, with the exception of soil treatment with herbicides. Drone seeded cover crop mix.
An experiment was started with the sowing of flax in almost mature winter wheat crops. Harvested in late autumn. Due to the promising results, this year it was decided to purchase the most powerful one on the market P100PRO a device that will be used not only for spraying, but also for seeding and spreading granular fertilizers.
Agrocopter company manager RomanʼI’m Tkachukʼme and Oril-Agro agronomist and agrodrone operator TimurʼI’m Rudiʼus
Was it difficult to master the novelty? “If you’re good at computers, you can do all the setup and control operations almost intuitively, and the guys who sold us the equipment gave us a crash course in the field, so after 4 hours we were flying the drone by ourselves.” From now on, our experiments with such a device reach a new level,” says Oril-Agro agronomist and agrodrone operator Timur Rudajus.
***
What prevents the development of unmanned technologies in the agricultural sector of Ukraine? Logistics with many obstacles that delay the introduction of new models and components indefinitely, fluctuations in the prices of spare parts, problems with obtaining flight permits, a backlog of scientific support, weak brand competition, as there are only three brands of drones on the Ukrainian market: RDE, DJI, XAG. There are dozens of them in the world.
The main factor holding back progress is Russian aggression. During the war, special attention is paid to permits to perform the relevant works. This is not to say that it is an overly complicated procedure, but it does take time, and it could be used effectively.
“Be that as it may, it is impossible to stop the winged evolution”, – drone expert Valery Jakovenko is convinced.
Author: Oleksiy Ryzhkov, Oleksandr Karpenko, Kyiv
Tags: Farm Integrating Drones Agriculture Ukrainian Experience
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