Unmanned aircraft can protect crops from locusts
by Gabino Martinez Serrano
The world population is growing at a rapid pace. Today we are almost seven billion people and it is estimated that the figure will exceed 10 billion in 15 years. The world’s need for food will double, but the world’s arable land remains the same. Experts say that to increase performance, it is important to plant each crop where it can best develop, increase the yield potential of plant varieties and to reduce adversity posed by pests which have become a real problem. Failure to protect crops from pests would reduce harvests to just over half.
Locusts are unique because they undergo a phase change. This means that under certain circumstances related to climate and population density, their behaviour changes and they move, eat and behave as a group, forming gigantic clouds and can travel great distances devouring crops in their path. These pests can affect 20 per cent of the surface of the earth, spreading through Africa, the Near East, and Southwest Asia. More than 65 countries may be at risk of swarms, invasion and reproduction.
The last powerful plague occurred in 1988-89, threatening as many as 43 countries, one fifth of the world as the locusts moved from Africa to Latin America in 10 days. In this epidemic $300m was invested in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and at present, the control of these pests represents a cost of $ 10m annually. Preventive measures seek to monitor the areas in which they occur and fumigate locust populations identified as gregarious. In practice this is difficult because the breeding places are in remote and inaccessible locations and the cost of the necessary infrastructure is very high. It is at this particular point that the Singular Aircraft SA-03 can contribute more, given its low operating costs and its ability to reach remote locations.
The aero-application is about the most secure, fastest, most efficient and most economical tool for this job. When crops are attacked by a pest or disease, time is crucial. The aerial application can accomplish in an hour what for a ground team would take whole day, and without touching or degrading the soil or plants, and without risk to the pilot’s life or health in applying the product. Today most of the aero-applicators use airplanes, although helicopters may also be used. The most common aircraft used today have load capacities of between 500 and 1,500 litres, whereas the Singular Aircraft twin-engine SA-03 unamnned aerial vehicle has a capacity of 2,200 litres. It has a high load capacity, yet fits into the segment of lower cost, both in the purchase price from €370,000 as well as operating cost of €200 per hour.
Another advantage of the SA-03 is that if a large area must be treated or seeded, where the reaction time is often crucial to combat a plague, the SA-03 can work even at night, without risk to the pilots, and with an operational flight plan entered into the automatic navigation system prior to takeoff. This system provides complete accuracy as to where, when and how much product is applied, gaining in efficiency, economy and reducing the risk to public health. In the event where changes in weather conditions might affect the existing flight plan, a new one can easily be made, taking into account new data on wind, temperature and humidity received from the UAV.
The FAO EMPRES programme aims to prevent locusts and will use the latest bio-pesticides and technology inclusing the Global Information System, which will help to locate swarms. These advances together with the capabilities of Singular Aircraft SA-03 in the area of fumigation, the high autonomy of flight, the fact that it poses no danger to the pilots and the low cost, can make a difference. Madagascar is currently facing a plague of locusts that could ruin crops and cause widespread famine. FAO estimates that it will cost around €41m to combat the problem and this provides a good example to study what the cost would be to use the Singular Aircraft SA-03. Given that the price per hectare treated with the SA-03 is €1.79, to treat 2,150,000 hectares in a three year campaign would cost a total of €3,848,500.
In conclusion we can say that the Singular Aircraft can attack the locust in all its stages, as grasshoppers, in adulthood, on the ground and in flight, day and night, and in amphibious mode on the mainland or in mid-ocean. This can be done at a low cost helping to balance political pressures, which are an inevitable feature of the management of the locust problem and the real damage caused by this pest is to the economic and social development in many countries.
