Drones can have a key role in predicting potato yields

Drones could have a key role in estimating potato yields, as well as identifying any costly planter problems resulting in less productive areas of the field.

Researchers at Fera Science, near York, have been investigating whether drones can be used to count accurately the number of potato plants in a field.

Estimating yields is a valuable tool for potato processors and packers, enabling them to better plan spud supplies during the season.

See also: Farmer leaders call for tougher rules on drones

However, counting crops to high levels of accuracy in the field is extremely time consuming, says Fera remote sensing scientist Paul Brown.

Even manually counting from images takes a very long time and does not provide a reliable result, he adds.

To address this, Mr Brown and his colleague Lee Butler looked at developing specialist image-processing software that can automatically count crops.

See also: 14 things farmers would really like to use a drone for

“Very high resolution remotely sensed images are becoming more and more widely, however, the analysis and interpretation of these images is fundamental to unlocking their potential in precision agriculture,” he stresses.

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