How using drones in farms is boosting profits for crop farmers

When it comes to farming, the difference between a good harvest and a bad harvest lies in how well crops are protected from pests. For many years in Kenya, farmers have relied on handheld sprayers or surveyors in mapping their farms or application of chemicals. However, farmers who have embraced a new form of technology are smiling all the way to the bank with reduced operational costs and improved profit margins. These are the farmers who have embraced the drone farming technology.

With the legalizing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, farmers have been able to cut costs and save on time. Take Mutheu Kithuma, a director with Kibwezi Agro Limited. The use of drones has saved her farm between 30 and 40 per cent of chemicals that would have otherwise gone to waste if they were to employ the use of hand-held sprayer or a tractor-mounted one. Mutheu also says the usage of drones has reduced the time that would have taken them to spray from 14 days to two days.

“The use of drones in spraying is very efficient and saves us a lot of costs and the time that we spent in conducting this exercise,” said Mutheu, who has embraced the technology on her 180-acre mango farm in Makueni County.

One of the companies that has been offering drone farming technology is DigiFarm, a subsidiary of Safaricom. In November 2021, DigiFarm introduced the use of drones in spraying chemicals to crops on selected farms in Western and Nyanza regions.

“The drones help with the spraying, mapping of the fields, they can do scouting and very soon some of them can even do something like planting as well. So we think it’s an important part of our offering that can do what they were doing before but just quicker, faster, and better,” said Omondi Kasidhi, the Director of Digifarm. “The drones help with the spraying, mapping of the fields, they can do scouting and very soon some of them can even do something like planting as well. So we think it’s an important part of our offering that can do what they were doing before but just quicker, faster, and better.”

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Benjamin Ikombo is one of the farmers whose farm has benefited from drone technology. The technology, Benjamin believes, could transform his fortunes and those of other farmers like him. Watch the video of the drones spraying on his farm below.