Using aerial imagery from satellites and drones together with their proprietary machine learning algorithms, Aerobotics helps farmers detect problems in their farm at an early stage so that they can investigate and intervene before they get worse. 

For farmers, the highest priority is to maintain a healthy and high-performing orchard, free of pests and diseases.

And the key to a good year’s harvest is thoroughly monitoring the farmland. Knowing exactly where and when to take action is vital for avoiding issues. Scouting fields and monitoring crops is traditionally a time-consuming manual task prone to inaccuracies, and this is where the Aerobotics solution comes in.

After witnessing the challenges of citrus farmers first-hand, the founders of Aerobotics built their company with the goal of helping farmers to improve their yield using the latest in machine learning technology. In the 6 years since their inception, they have worked with almost every tree crop and vine farm across the globe.

Getting Started

When a grower signs up with Aeroview, the app picks up on your geographic location and instantly digitises your farm.

Once you’ve identified your farm on Aeroview, you will instantly have access to over 2 years of historical satellite health data for your orchards. On your satellite heat map, red areas indicate weak crop health and dark green indicates optimal health.

Now, this is where you can get even deeper analytics into your crops’ health using drone imagery.

An Eye in the Sky 

After you’ve booked a flight as part of any Orchard Monitoring Package with Aerobotics, the company will send one of their accredited drone pilots to your farm at your convenience.

The multispectral cameras they attach to drones capture farms at an insect-level and informs their software, which automatically identifies problems unseen to the naked eye.

Farmers can then view in-depth health reports with a few clicks on their desktop web-app, Aeroview.

Per Tree Data At Your Fingertips

On Aeroview, growers can view per tree analytics that includes health status, chlorophyll levels and canopy area, volume and more. Unhealthy trees are represented by red dots, and healthy with green so that you can see exactly which trees on your farm are underperforming.

Once you have identified which trees are in trouble, you can investigate in-field using Aerobotics’ mobile app, Aeroview InField.

Digitised Scouting

Aeroview allows you to filter your farm map so that you can only see the unhealthy trees and create scout routes from the comfort of your office, pre-marking the GPS-coordinates which need to be investigated.

On the ground, Aerobotics’ mobile scouting app, Aeroview InField, directs scouts to the problem trees and areas on a farm, as selected by the farmer on Aeroview.

Scouts can leave notes, pictures and quantitative information on the app as they go, which the grower can then view on the Aeroview web-app

From here growers can make informed decisions on when, where and what to take action against in their orchards. This can range from anything to a pest, disease, deficiency or weather damage.

Why to fly This and Next Month

This month the Agronomy team at Aerobotics HQ recommends drone flights for citrus, apples/pears and wine grapes, with avocados and pecan nuts joining the lot as a high-priority crop in the upcoming month.

Each crop type hosts its own potential threats.

Citrus (phenological stage: fruit growth, summer flush, physiological fruit drop)

It is crucial for citrus farmers to monitor tree health this month, as any stress to the tree can directly affect yield. After a drone flight, Aeroview will highlight zones where canopies appear stressed. From here a scout route can be created and carried out in order to investigate and important decisions regarding fertiliser application and chemical thinning can be made.

Next month, farmers should book pre-colour flights to detect problematic trees, manage canopy and volume for good penetration of sunlight for ripening fruit and monitor heavy bearing trees for alternate bearing.

Diseases to look out for

High risk: Alternaria brown spot,

Medium risk: Phytophthora, Citrus Greening

Pests to look out for

High risk: Thrips (leaves/fruit), False codling moth, Mealy Bug, Red Scale, Blossom Flower Moth, Soft brown scale, Orange caterpillar

Medium risk: Fruit fly, Citrus Psylla

Apples/Pears (phenological stage:fruit growth & ripening)

Apple and pear farmers are flying this month to compare the results of management practices since previous flights. On Aeroview you can create a zonal map to mark fruit sampling locations.

Diseases to look out for

High risk: Powdery Mildew, Apple Scab

Pests to look out for

High risk: Aphids, Codling Moth, Weevil, Mealy Bug

Wine Grapes (phenological stage:berry growth, colouring and then ripening in February)

Fly to monitor per vine stress and canopy area, evaluate management practices and create berry sampling locations.

Diseases to look out for

High risk: Powdery Mildew, Downy Mildew, Botrytis Rot, Eutypa dieback

Pests to look out for

High risk: Mealy Bug, Leafroller Damage, Banded fruit weevil, Thrips

Medium risk: Bollworm

Avocados (phenological stage: fruit drop, summer flush and then harvest)

Disease pressure is high on avocado orchards during this time of the season. It’s important to minimise this with in-depth per tree and zone analytics which detect problems before they are visible to the human eye.

Diseases to look out for

High risk: Cercospora Spot, Phytophthora/Root Rot, Black Spot. Moderate Risk: Sun blotch virus.

Low risk: Scale/Sooty Mold

Pests to look out for

High risk: Fruit Fly, False Codling Moth, Stink Bug/Sucking Bug/Coconut Bug.

Medium risk: Thrips. Low Risk: Avocado Bug

Pecan Nuts (phenological stage: Nut growth & shell thickness)

Fly at the start of nut fill to ensure that your leaves are healthy and able to produce nutrients for the current crop load as well as enough reserves for next season.

Using Aeroview’s Canopy Area index, you will be able to track new growth over the season.

Diseases to look out for

High Risk: Anthracnose, Scab, Alternaria (Brown spot), Powdery Mildew, Shott-hole, Black blotch and dieback. Moderate risk: Bunch disease.

Pests to look out for

High Risk: Bollworm, Shot-hole borer, fruit fly, aphids. Moderate risk: False Codling moth

Contact Aerobotics’ Head of Business Development, Vic van den Berg vic@aerobotics.com, 076-625-9273 for more information. Also visit their website at: www.aerobotics.com