Drones and AI used to help farmers tackle weeds

Some of the latest technology could be used to help farmers tackle one of their oldest problems.

Researchers at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, are using drones and AI to scan fields and identify weeds.

Fighting weeds can be difficult and time consuming for farmers and it is hoped the new technology will save time and reduce the need for large-scale chemical spraying.

"[This way] you are precisely identifying the area that weeds are [in], that means that rather than applying pesticides or herbicides to an entire field, you select specific areas," said Dr Emmanuel Zuza, senior lecturer in Environmental Management and Sustainability at the university.

"That means you have less herbicides and pesticides released into the environment but you are also reducing the cost of production on your farm," he said.

Some weeds have also grown resistant to types of herbicide and it is hoped that helping to lower the amounts of chemicals used can help to slow down the resistance.

Students at the university are currently working to train AI programmes to accurately identify different types of weed among planted crops, which can help to hide weeds as they grow taller.

"What we are trying to analyse are the different algorithms and how they can accurately identify weeds from images," said Zuza.

The models can also be trained to identify insects and other pests.

The study is currently being conducted on land owned by the university but will soon be trialled on working farms.

"We are already in contact with farmers around the university where we will introduce the drones to see how we can look at different types of crops," said Zuza.

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