The implementation of technology in the agricultural sector is one of the bets of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), which this Wednesday inaugurated the Agricultural Intelligence Unit, in the National School of Agriculture (ENA), “Roberto Quiñónez”.
The unit, which is the first in Central America, will be in charge of monitoring productive areas by means of agricultural drones and thus detect the status of crops, reported the General Directorate of Plant Health (DGSV) of the MAG.
“We know that our producers must become more technical to facilitate their work and improve the yield of their crops. These agrodrones come to facilitate the hard work they do, ”said the Minister of Agriculture, Pablo Anliker.
Initially, the unit will have a total of 13 drones, of which three will serve for surveillance and monitoring and the other 10 for intervention, preventive and reactive control.
The drones will have the facility to capture multispectral images of the crops and plantations of the productive areas of the country so that the Unit technicians can determine the cause of the problems and early interventions in the problem areas and follow up on the reports of the same producers.
“Each agrodrones is capable of covering four blocks per flight, two drones can perform multiple flights with a capacity of 100 blocks and the full unit capacity is (10 drones) that can cover up to 500 blocks per day,” said the Director of Health. Vegetal, Iván Bethancourt.
The surveillance drones are DJI Phanton Pro RTK model, with a multispectral camera, which will be used for the surveillance and monitoring of water stress in crops and plantations; surveillance and monitoring of pests and diseases; surveillance and monitoring of crop conditions and projection of productivity; and monitoring of post-climatic events.
While those for intervention, preventive and reactive control are Agro Dron model (AG122), with a capacity of 20 liters. These can be used for the application of biological products and green strip in crops and plantations.
The air vehicles will be handled by personnel trained and certified by Hylio USA and the service will be made available to medium and large agricultural producers in the country.
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