The Brussels Development Briefing n.45 on the subject of “Smart and Affordable farming solutions for Africa: the next driver for agricultural transformation” was held in Brussels at 09:00-13:00 on 13th July 2016 at the Albert Borschette Congress Center, Room 1.A (Rue Froissart 36, 1040 Brussels). This Briefing was organised by the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), in collaboration with the European Commission, the the European Commission / DEVCO, the ACP Secretariat, CONCORD, CEMA, Agricord and the PanAfrican Farmer’s Organisation (PAFO).

1. DRONE-BASED
APPLICATIONS FOR
PRECISION FARMING

2. AGENDA
• Quick introduction on drones
• Illustrations of applications
• Airinov experience in precision farming with drones

3. WHAT IS A DRONE IN AGRICULTURE?
IT IS NOT ABOUT FLYING…

4. A DRONE IS MADE OF 3 PARTS
A flying platform A sensor A processing power
• Fixed wing
• Multi-rotor
• Multispectral camera
• Sense the crop and add extra
information vs. your eyes
• Servers in the cloud
• Agriculture know-how to transform
the data into insights for the farmer
What is key for agriculture?

5. WHAT YOU CAN SEE WITH A SENSOR YOU CANNOT WITH YOUR EYES

6. WHAT YOU CAN SEE WITH A SENSOR YOU CANNOT WITH YOUR EYES

7. EXAMPLES OF APPLICATIONS
WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH A DRONE

8. THREE TYPES OF SERVICES
Recommendation to farmers Field trial monitoring Remote sensing R&D
Objective
Crops
• Make a simple, efficient
recommendation at a point in time
to optimize the farmers business
• Provide reliable, fast statistics over a
growing season to help select seeds,
crop protection products, fertilizers…
• Look for new applications of remote
sensing with a dedicated partner
• Cereals, Oilseed rape, Potato
• New crops every year
• Any type of crops, any type of trials,
in platform or in field
• On demand

9. FERTILISATION RECOMMENDATION
Nitrogen absorbed Biomass (Dry matter)
Deficit in Nitrogen application
(Simple reco map)
Deficit in Nitrogen application
(Precise reco map)
Nitrogen absorbed (kg N / ha) Dry Matter (T / ha)
WHEAT EXAMPLE

10. BETTER FERTILIZING TO PROTECT ENVIRONMENT AND MAKE SAVINGS
Automatic fertilisation for 30% of our clients Manual fertilisation for 70% of our clients

11. BETTER CONTROL YOUR FIELDS
Equipment or fertilizer problem Equipment problem
Equipment or
fertilizer not
working
Lower levels of
N absorbed
Higher levels of
N absorbed
Irregular
fertilisation stripe
to be investigated
Nitrogen absorbed (kg N / ha) Nitrogen absorbed (kg N / ha)

12. ADVANTAGES FOR A FARMER
• Optimize fertiliser inputs
• Optimize costs
• Increase yield
• Protect environment
• Control your field
• See impact on sowing/ fertilizing practices
• Manage total dose of Nitrogen in field
• Improve field knowledge
• Understand soil/ geographic impacts on crops
• Drill down on specific issues with more
precision/ accuracy

13. AIRINOV EXPERIENCE
IN DRONES FOR AGRICULTURE
AIRINOV, AN EXPERT IN DRONE-BASED SERVICES
TECHINCAL EXPERTISE, OPERATIONAL KNOW-HOW

14. OUR HISTORY
Adaptation to Arable FarmingResearch & Development Expansion of successful model
• Born in a farm's barn in 2010
• 3 founders, including a farmer’s son
• Partner of agronomy research institute
INRA
• Starting 2012, focus on farming
• In 2016, 10 000+ farmers customers
• 200 000+ hectares overflown
(wheat, oilseed rape)
• Since 2015, geographical expansion
(Europe, Africa, Middle East…)
• Product range extension to more arable
crops and start with tropical crops

15. A SERVICE WITH 4 MAIN ROLES
Order the service Promote the service
Sell the service
Organize the service
Make the agronomic analysis
Execute the flight
The farmer doesn’t need to invest in a drone!

16. A SERVICE ADAPTED TO ALL FARMERS
15 000 flights in Spring 2016 Any farmer can access the service
80% of all official flights
in France
• No minimum size of parcels
• No minimum size of farms
• Biggest field flown in France:
84ha
• Biggest field flown in Europe:
185ha
• Average
France:
7ha
• Min:
0,5ha

17. TOOLS TO RUN THE SERVICE ON A LARGE SCALE BASIS
• SMS sent to farmers and distributors
• Deliverables sent to farmer in 2-4 days
• Web-based tool for distributors
• Smartphone application for flight operators

18. A COVERAGE SOON EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD!

19. Thank you for your
attention!
+33 9 72 39 75 82 (FR)
+44 330 684 6074 (UK)
+49 32 221 746 084 (DE)
+31 85 88 83 504 (NL)
+45 89 88 28 45 (DK)
sales@airinov.com
www.airinov.comLe 21/05/2014

20. ANNEXES

21. PRINCIPLES OF REFLECTANCE
A plant’s reflectance varies with its contentOur sensor enables to measure plant reflectance
Green Red RedEdge Near Infrared
Our sensor’s
wavelengths

22. PROFITABILITY OF OUR SERVICE
Modulation map based on our recommendation Yield map results after our modulation recommendation
-33% of N during the last input No decrease in yield

23. A TOOL TO MONITOR LARGE SCALE OPERATIONS
• Very efficient operations for flight
operators thanks to our automated
processes and informatics tools
• Up to 1000ha covered per day per
operator depending on the country’s
flight conditions
• Several 1000ha covered per day over a
region or a country thanks to our very
large network of flight operators

24. WE SELL RECOMMENDATIONS MAPS BASED ON DRONE TECHNOLOGY
We sell 1 drone in 1 region We serve all farmers, regardless of farm size