Precision Agriculture Through Unmanned Arial Vehicles: A Case Study at Sultan Qaboos University

Food security has always been of great importance to governments around the world. The importance of food security has even grown larger due to recent events, where the yield of particular crops has gone smaller and wars have disrupted the exports of other crops. Therefore, the development of agriculture is critical to food security. Such a development can benefit from numerous technologies that help in increasing the crop yield yearlong. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – also known as drones – have made their way into the agricultural sector in recent years by using them to carry out operations such as monitoring the growth and health of plants, spraying crops with pesticides, and livestock management. They have proven to be very effective in obtaining farm data efficiently and accurately; allowing the farmer to make more informed decisions on the use of water, fertilizers, and other resources. Unfortunately, Omani farmers have yet to take full advantage of technology, as they still rely on traditional farming methods. This paper proposes the utilization of drones, remote sensing, and machine vision technologies to provide the farmer with an intelligent agricultural crop monitoring system. The farmer is provided with a friendly online dashboard with real-time data regarding the health of the farm. The results obtained from the field tests, conducted at Sultan Qaboos University farms, can help the farmers in improving the yield of the farms, which will reduce losses and increase revenues.