The Community of Madrid is integrating new technologies applied to agriculture, such as drones and artificial intelligence (AI), to improve crop yields. To this end, experts from the Institute of Rural, Agrarian and Food Research and Development (IMIDRA) are developing the Agriculture 6.0 project.
For this purpose, an open laboratory has been created at the IMIDRA farm in El Encín (Alcalá de Henares), with drones and sensors that recho multiple parameters in real time such as soil temperature, humidity, pressure, pH, nutrients and other factors. Subsequently, the information is uploaded to a server and AI and big data analytics are applied.
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Devices and continuous monitoring enable faster and more accurate decisions, fundamental to optimize resources, reduce water and fertilizer use and increase agricultural productivity. They also collect data on climate, fertilizer use and crop planning.
Information and its analysis, as well as the application of learning, are improve agricultural efficiency by 20%according to the working group leading the research, in which the universities of Valencia and the Polytechnic School of Valencia participate.
Digitalization of the sector
It will also contribute to the digitalization of the sector and the improvement of its profitability, in addition to ooptimize resources like waterestablishing automated irrigation systems.
The Institute also develops an innovative project that uses a digital twinwhich consists of a virtual replica of agricultural farms, to simulate and predict behaviors based on experimentation and real data collection.
Afterwards, are processed using advanced AI algorithms and machine learning, which detects patterns and trends. This research is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union’s Next Generation (PRTR) funds.
Detect pests
IMIDRA is developing other projects to take care of agricultural operations, such as the use of drones equipped with multispectral and thermal sensors, which collect information with detailed images of the terrain.
SO, detect plant health index by comparing the amount of light they absorb and reflect, the water they receive, the nutrients they assimilate or the symptoms of diseases caused by pests.
The use of drones by this organization in the Community of Madrid enables analyzes to be performed faster and more cost-effectively than other traditional monitoring methods, reducing costs by up to 15% and gaining ground by increasing productivity and respecting the natural environment.
