Exploring the future of farming with aerial crop spraying

Will drones improve the farming industry? Here's how drones could improve the future of farming at a fraction of the cost.

A new drone, the T50, with the potential to revolutionize the agricultural industry, has arrived in Innisfil Ont.

On Wednesday morning, it was on display at Boris Horodynsky's farm. He's one of many local farmers interested in the new technology.

"We figured we'd get better application of our crop protection materials because of the vortex the drone creates, same as a helicopter or wind. We can get better penetration in the foliage and get better coverage of our materials into the foliage with less material," said Boris Horodynsky from Horodynsky Farms.

The T50 drone allows farmers to control it using a handheld remote while spraying crops from above, eliminating the need to track in the field.

Jenny Chen and her husband, Alex, act as the general distributors for DJI Agricultural Drones Canada. They use the farmland in Innisfil as their home base for testing and service.

"It has uniform spray to the crops, and it also makes sure the downfall wind that will blow the wind-down can effectively cover everywhere of the crops, including the back of the leaves, the intersection of the leaves and roots of the crops," said Chen.

Chen said similar models are already used in many countries worldwide. The new model can cover 50 acres of land in one hour.

Local farmers stopped by the farm on Wednesday to see the units themselves.

"No fuels, it's all battery-operated. It's going to be as long as we can get the regulations to get Transport Canada to give us faster approval to using these because it is definitely going to be beneficial to the environment," said David Acres Acres from Property Service.

The units cost about 37 thousand dollars with three chargeable batteries. That's about 10 per cent of the cost of a tractor.

Chen believes that this is not only the future of farming in Canada but also around the world.