Drone Spray Technology

Drone spray technology is an efficient and increasingly popular smart farming technique for precisely applying fertilizers to crops. Using specialist agricultural drones, farmers can apply fertilizers exactly where and when they are needed.

Farmers in China, the USA, and Japan are leading the way in adopting agricultural drones for fertilizer spraying. With new developments in drone technology and fertilizer products specifically created for drones, the sector is expanding rapidly and is clearly an area of great interest to growers.

What are the Benefits of Drone Fertilizer Spraying?

Agricultural drones, when combined with fertilizer products that are designed for aerial application, offer several significant advantages:

• Targeted application reduces waste
• The use of sensors allows real-time adjustment of application rates
• Minimized runoff thanks to precise application
• Fast coverage
• Lower operational costs, no heavy machines required
• Prevents soil compaction
• Excellent for small fields or difficult terrain where traditional machinery might be inefficient
• Increased sustainability thanks to efficient resource use.

Overall, using drones for fertilizer application can be more precise, efficient, and sustainable than traditional machinery while also simplifying the spray application process in challenging environments, such as steep slopes or irregularly shaped fields.

What Fertilizers are Suitable for Drone Spraying?

While drones offer many advantages for fertilizer application, it is important to choose fertilizers carefully to get the optimum results. There are several important factors to consider when selecting fertilizers for use with drones.

• As with any fertilizer application, choosing the right nutrient combination for the crop is vital, which includes considering fertilizers that contain essential micronutrients if your crops need them.
• Typically, drones are better suited to spraying liquid fertilizer rather than applying granules, making water-soluble foliar fertilizers a convenient and appropriate choice.
• Drones have a limited payload capacity, so selecting highly concentrated, Ultra-Low Volume Fertilizers will efficiently enable drones to cover as large an area as possible between refills.

The Benefits of ICL FertiBuzz

ICL FertiBuzz is a high analysis, low salt index water-soluble fertilizer specifically developed for drone application. This highly concentrated P&K fertilizer with boron, manganese, and zinc micronutrients is specifically designed for low and ultra-low volume foliar applications.

While regular crop sprayers will typically apply 200-300 liters per ha of mixed solution onto crops, the highly concentrated FertiBuzz solution is tailored for drone application and can be applied at just 20-50 liters per ha. Using a drone to apply the highly concentrated, homogeneous FertiBuzz solution ensures accurate, efficient delivery of the fertilizer nutrients.

Discover more about ICL FertiBuzz, designed to maximize the unique advantages of fertilizer spraying with agricultural drones.