Farming drones
A monitoring drone finds the problem from the air. A sprayer drone treats exactly those patches. A ground inspection drone drives the rows to confirm what is happening under the canopy, where no camera in the sky can see.
From the ground, a large farm is only ever seen in pieces. A struggling patch in the middle of a maize field, a broken lateral in an orchard or a gap in the stand is invisible from the road until it is big.
Tractors cannot enter wet ground, steep ground or tall crops without damaging them, and knapsack spraying is slow, uneven and unhealthy for the person carrying it.
And an aerial image only shows the top of the canopy. Pests start under leaves, diseases start low in the crop, and greenhouse rows have no sky above them at all.
How it works
RGB and multispectral imagery of the whole farm, stitched into one map. Vegetation indices such as NDVI show differences in crop vigour weeks before the eye can.
A wheeled inspection drone drives the suspect rows with cameras at crop height and under the leaves, confirming whether a weak patch is pest, disease, water or nutrients.
The sprayer drone follows a prescription map and treats only the flagged patches — including wet, steep and tall-crop ground a tractor cannot enter.
Flights, maps, findings and every spray application are logged against the block, ready for buyers and auditors.
What you get
Problems found early and from above, not when they reach the road.
Only the patches that need it, at the right time, with no crop trampled.
The ground drone turns “this patch looks weak” into “this is thrips on the underside of the leaves”.
Nobody walking a field with a knapsack in the heat, breathing chemical.
Flies a planned grid over the farm and captures overlapping images that are stitched into a single map. With a multispectral camera the map shows crop vigour (NDVI and related indices), so a patch under stress stands out long before it yellows.
Uses: early stress detection, stand and plant counts, spotting irrigation failures, measuring areas, documenting storm and hail damage for insurance, and building elevation and drainage maps.
Carries a tank and nozzles and flies low over the crop following a prescription map, treating only the patches flagged by monitoring or scouting. Rotor downwash pushes droplets into the canopy.
Uses: spot treatment of pest and disease outbreaks, foliar feeding, tall crops such as maize late in the season, orchards, terraces and wet or steep ground. Applications are logged automatically, and all spraying follows the product label and your agronomist’s programme.
A small wheeled or tracked robot with cameras at crop height. It drives between rows — in the open field, in orchards and inside greenhouses and net houses — and photographs what an aerial drone cannot: the underside of leaves, stems, fruit and the base of the plant.
Uses: confirming what aerial imagery flagged, routine greenhouse scouting for thrips, whitefly, mites and mildew, counting flowers and fruit, and checking drip lines and emitters along the row.
Equipment
Questions
Drone operations in Kenya are regulated by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, and crop protection products by the Pest Control Products Board. Flights are carried out by licensed operators within those rules, with products applied according to their label.
A wheeled or tracked robot with cameras at crop height that drives between rows. It sees under the canopy and inside greenhouses, where aerial drones cannot.
No. Drones are offered as a service — we fly your farm and deliver the maps, findings and spray records. Where a large farm wants its own, it can be bought outright, leased or paid for by PAYGo.
Drone services are in rollout. Talk to us about being an early site.
The first conversation is a site visit: we walk the farm with you and understand what you grow or keep and what is going wrong. No cost, no commitment. Buy outright, lease, or pay as you go by M-Pesa.