Alkesh Sharma / Emirates Business
Thanks to UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) technology, soon UAE-based agriculturists and investors will be able to monitor their sprawling farmlands situated as far as in Sudan, without even stepping out of their homes.
Under the concept of remote ownership, this could be made possible through smart drones that would do daily monitoring of faraway meadows and send daily reports, consisting of imagery and detailed description of grey areas that need immediate attention, right on the smart-phone of the actual owner.
India-based technology start-up TartanSense is offering easy solutions to UAE residents to oversee their fields located thousands of miles away from their homes and offices.
“There are many investors in the UAE, who have invested their money in agriculture sector in other countries like Sudan. They own farms, running into several hectares, and have outsourced people to cultivate. Now it is practically not possible for them to observe or supervise while sitting here and they have to rely on information coming through second hand,†said Jaisimha Rao, founder and CEO of TartanSense, which is headquartered in Bangalore.
“By using our drones, UAE entrepreneurs will be able to do easy overseeing of their land on a daily basis. Besides, they will get regular updates in the form of bar graphs and pie-charts, demarcating the levels of expected yield from different areas in the field. Accordingly, farmers will take action to take care of the areas that are not showing promising yields,†added Rao. Drones usually weigh between two and five kilogram and are low maintenance devices that could be easily controlled through computer software.
TartanSense is currently offering the similar drone technology to investors who own farms in Indonesia, Sierra Leone and India. The UAE
expressed keen interest in their
technology in the recently-held
Global Forum for Innovations in
Agriculture (GIFA), Abu Dhabi.