Smart Irrigation Management Through Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

With the ever-growing global population, meeting the escalating demand for food has become a pressing challenge. To address this issue, the adoption of smart agriculture techniques has gained significant momentum. Leveraging the latest advancements in Information and CommunicationsCommunication Technology (ICT), smart agriculture integrates climate change mitigation and other environmental considerations to ensure sustainable and efficient food productionProduction. Among the array of innovative tools available, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) emerge as a promising solution due to their sensor-equipped capabilities and remote controllability. By harnessing the potential of UAVs, the realm of smart farming can be revolutionized. UAVs offer a multitude of applications, including crop quality assessment, surveillance of pest, weed, and animal threats, irrigation planning, and identification of bio-processing errors. These applications not only empower agricultural experts to make informed decisions but also lead to cost savings and knowledge advancement. This chapter aims to present numerous examples of smart agriculture and elucidate the benefits and applications of deploying UAVs in the agricultural domain. Specifically, the utilization of UAVs for pest control, intelligent irrigation, agricultural monitoring, and livestock surveillance will be explored. The integration of UAVs in agriculture holds immense potential in enhancing sustainability and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).