e-Agriculture Learning Activity on the use of Drones in Agriculture and Rural Development – 16 to 27 October 2017
Monday 16 October: Opening of the activity
13/10/2017
Overview of today's content :
- Introduction
- Live opening webinar at 2PM UTC/4PM CEST
- Practical information
- Exercise 1: Experience capitalization
- Warm up: some blogs and websites
1. Introduction
Welcome to the e-Agriculture Learning Activity on the use of drones for agriculture and rural development!
Over the next two weeks we will be discovering different aspects of the use of drones for agriculture and rural development together. We will be using different formats of learning methods such as webinars, text, video, exercises and online discussions. Each day of this learning activity, new information will be made available for you to browse, read and explore. You will receive an email with the summary and link to the content. Once published, the content will remain available on the platform for participants who want to read it at a later time. You can download the programme for the two weeks here. In this way you can schedule in some time for the live sessions of your interest.
2. Live opening webinar
To start our learning activity we will have a live session during which the facilitators will explain how the activity is organized and where you can share your questions and contributions with the group of participants. We wish you a happy learning period and fruitful exchanges with the other participants.
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Monday 16 October 2PM UTC 4PM Central European Summer Time - Webinar Opening Session Connect by copy pasting this link to your browser: http://fao.adobeconnect.com/e-agdrones1/ Log-in as a guest with your name and/or organization. The recording of the webinar will be made available here after the session |
3. Practical information
Help
During this course you can always ask the e-Agriculture Team for help writing an email to [email protected] or by posting your questions on the platform. We will try to help you as soon as possible!
Time of the webinars
All live webinars are scheduled at the same time - 2PM UTC or 4PM Central European Summer Time. Please find below a list of timezones so you can check at what time the webinars take place for you! Do not forget recordings will be made available after each webinars, so if the time is not convenient for you you can always watch the recording at a later time.
- San Diego 7 AM
- Panama 9 AM
- Washington DC 10 AM
- Santiago de Chile 11 AM
- Accra 2PM
- Dakar 2PM
- Brussels 4 PM
- Rome 4 PM
- Budapest 4 PM
- Nairobi 5PM
- New Delhi 7.30 PM
- Bangkok 9 PM
- Make sure that you have a good internet connection
- We strongly recommend that you log on to Chrome or Firefox (to avoid additional plug-in downloads)
- Open this link well in advance (around 10 minutes) of the Webinar so - in case necessary - you have enough time to install the Adobe Flash Player 10.3.Go to: http://na1cps.adobeconnect.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm to check your settings.
- Log in as a guest - entering your first and last name
Let us watch this video on the use of drones for precision agriculture by Agribusiness TV
4. Exercise
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Exercise 1: Experience on the use of drones |
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For the first exercise each participant is requested to submit a short experience on the use of drones. You can share your own experience or the experience from an organization or project of your choice. In case you are writing about an experience that is not yours ensure to clearly mention the sources you have used. We are looking for short texts of 300 to 500 words, replying to the following questions.
Submit your exercise by Monday the 23rd of October on the following page. On Monday the 23rd of October, participants, experts and facilitators will go through the submissions and offer comments or ask questions. |
5. Warm up: some blogs and websites
Warming up? Take a look at the following blog posts, news and websites to get a first taste of the topic.
A few of the articles on drones previously posted on e-Agriculture.org
- Options for the use of drones in agriculture: http://www.e-agriculture.org/blog/options-use-drones-agriculture
- Drone Technology is aiding data collection for crop breeding in Africa: http://www.e-agriculture.org/news/drone-technology-aiding-data-collection-crop-breeding-africa
- Six Ways Drones Are Revolutionizing Agriculture: http://www.e-agriculture.org/news/six-ways-drones-are-revolutionizing-agriculture
- FAO and World Bank experiences in using drones for improving governance http://www.e-agriculture.org/blog/fao-and-world-bank-experiences-using-drones-improving-governance
- CTA supports drone operations in Benin, DRC,Ghana, Tanzania and Rwanda http://www.e-agriculture.org/news/cta-supports-drone-operations-benin-drcghana-tanzania-and-rwanda
- Drones in Agriculture http://www.e-agriculture.org/blog/drones-agriculture
- Cost-sharing initiative for the set-up of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) services for agriculture in six ACP countries http://www.e-agriculture.org/news/cost-sharing-initiative-set-unmanned-aerial-systems-uas-services-agriculture-six-acp-countries
- InterDrone: The International Drone Conference and Exposition http://www.e-agriculture.org/events/interdrone-international-drone-conference-and-exposition
- How Drone Technology Is Bringing Environmental Benefits To Farms http://www.e-agriculture.org/blog/how-drone-technology-bringing-environmental-benefits-farms-1
Centre for Technical Cooperation in the APC-Region (CTA) and ICT Update
Are you interested in ICTs for Agriculture (ICT4Ag), in general, and the use of drones for agriculture in particular? Make sure you join the UAV4Ag communities on social media ! For many years, CTA has been on the forefront of introducing innovative technologies within the entire agricultural value chain to improve agricultural production and food security. You can find interesting updates on their projects and stories from the field on their corporate (www.cta.int) and thematic websites like http://ict4ag.cta.int and http://muiis.cta.int . CTA also publishes a magazine on ICT4Ag called ICT Update. You can consult articles and download entire issues via http://ictupdate.cta.int.
Take a look at the following publications that are specifically about drones:
- ICT Update n°82 - Drones for agriculture: This edition of the ICTUpdate is entirely dedicated to the topic of drones - dive in! This edition is available in English, French, Spanish and Swahili: https://goo.gl/vTZxKz
- Small Unmanned Aerial System Mapping versus Conventional Methods: The use of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) in aerial mapping applications is increasingly being used as an appropriate surveying method in many sectors, particularly for agriculture. Since the use of sUAS is new to many agricultural sector players, it is useful to reflect on the costs and benefits, and related technical and operational challenges, as well as the advantages that present themselves in the practical implementation of this technology. https://goo.gl/UWCyU2
- Regulations and realities in Nigeria’s UAV airspace: https://goo.gl/onfRQB (French: https://goo.gl/SpZejy )
- Benin’s drone regulations lag behind: https://goo.gl/FmJLG4 (French: https://goo.gl/gPVbV6 )
- Are regulations stifling the drone-based agri-service industry in South Africa? https://goo.gl/RAf9xZ (French: https://goo.gl/BNDHG7 )
- Smooth ride for drone operators in Ghana: https://goo.gl/iQWFfM (French; https://goo.gl/Nom2QJ )
- Drone regulation in Kenya: about to take-off: https://goo.gl/RHXruy (French: https://goo.gl/ycwkF9 )
Consult the Global drone regulations database which has been developed as a multiagency effort and to which you may want to contribute www.droneregulations.info
We will learn more about the work of CTA on drones on Thursday 26 October. We will share a recorded presentation from Giacomo Rambaldi on regulations, privacy, and safety. You will be able to ask questions to Giacomo on the page dedicated to this topic.
Perception survey on the use of drones in agriculture
Starting last week, CTA has been running a perception survey on the use of drones for agriculture. You may be interested in sharing your opinion. The survey can be taken in English and French. For more information and participation in the survey: click here
UAV4Ag
UAV4Ag is a Dgroups based community of practice on the use of UAVs for agriculture. It is a CoP of over 800 members from 100 countries, that share their experiences in developing UAV technologies and related software applications. Events, capacity development opportunities and resources are shared and there is a strong focus on existing and forthcoming policies, laws and regulations governing the use of UAVs. The moderation of this community is jointly managed by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA). You can join the CoP for free and stay in the loop! The CoP can also be followed on twitter ( www.twitter.com/uav4ag) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/uav4ag )
UAViators
UAViators (www.uaviators.org) is a community with over 2,900 members from more than 120 countries. Its mission is to promote safe, coordinated and effective use of UAVs for data collection and cargo delivery in a wide range of humanitarian and development settings. UAViators aims to develop and champion international guidelines for the responsible use of UAVs. The community documents lessons learned and best practices, organizes forums, and convene experts meetings to facilitate information sharing, coordination and learning.
Did you read a great blog on the topic of drones? Did you come across an article that you think no one should miss? Do you know a website that brings together valuable information? If yes, why not share the link and some information by commenting on this post!
The e-Agriculture learning activity on drones for agriculture and rural development aims at bringing an introduction to the topic and is not exhaustive. There are many organizations and private sector actors working on this topic and we are only presenting a few, based on voluntary contributions and freely accessible materials. e-Agriculture does not want to endorse any practice or model over another. We, therefore, welcome any other contributions of relevant content during the period of the course.Welcome to all of you! I am Alice, one of the facilitators of the e-Agriculture Team. Come and join our live opening session for more practical information on the course. We will start in 15 minutes, so connect now with the following link: http://fao.adobeconnect.com/e-agdrones1/
See you there in a moment!
Welcome to the first day of the activity! Some of you have just participated in the live opening session - others can watch the recording soon on this page.
How to post a comment and to subscribe to content: http://www.e-agriculture.org/fr/blog/posting-comment-e-agriculture-foru…;
Let us hear from you by posting a little comment here- to check if all is fine - or if you have any further practical questions - post them here!
To have an idea of what our participants of today are expecting from the course I have collected some of the answers of the live webinar.
- learn more about drones, which is completely new to me
- interested to learn more about precision agriculture and how drones are used
- to network
- to get a feel of new developments in the use of drones in agriculture
- learn from experiences with using drones
- drone experts who want to learn about how they are used in agriculture
- learn how drone tech can benefit rural (east) African producer organizations and how they need to organize themselves towards accessing these services
- understand the role of drones in the agriculture in general, and the data obtained from drones in particular
We have also taken note of the different technical questions and we will post them under the topics of the different upcoming days!
I have had an experience on a livestock farm where a farmer was piloting the use of drones for inspection of the entire property to see whether all animals were in their paddocks and if all had been supplied with water, looking for the sick and weak ones and any other intrusions on the property. This was an eye opener to me whereby I realised one didnt need so much man power to know what was happening on the entire farm in the shortest time possible.
thanks to this innovation, it simplifies life
It is diffucult these days to work as a honest farmer and it is even tougher to maintain the number of animals that are there in one farm due to a huge land. It is because of these simple innovations of yours like droning or giving agriculture apps that help us farmer live a better life by reducing our effort and making it easy to sell our crops. I sincerely thank you guys for helping all the farmers out all over the world!!!!