One: In the MIT
Technology Review, Chris Anderson has the story titled "Agricultural
Drones" and subtitled "Relatively cheap drones with advanced sensors
and imaging capabilities are giving farmers new ways to increase yields and
reduce crop damage," from where comes the above image (May/June 2014, technologyreview.com).
Two: There's the news, "Feds Keeping A Close Eye On Drones And Operators,"
as some are smuggling drugs over the US-Mexican border (CBS News, cbsnews.com).
All that means the evil lies not in the Device but the Devil; the good lies in
the User and not the Abuser.
Filipino
farmers are aging; what I know is that their average age is 57 years. We must revivify
PH agriculture with transfusion of young blood into her veins. We're assuming
there that we know exactly what is good for PH agriculture, and we just need
young warm bodies to help work it all out for the good of all.
Now then, William Dar is proposing that one way to attract
the Filipino youth to agriculture is to get them to use drones (Friday, 14
December 2018, "Drones Can Make Farming Look Sexy," Manila Times, manilatimes.net).
He says:
One of the best ways to help attract more of
the youth to farming is to introduce one technology that can immediately change
the face of farming in the country.
Mr Dar says, "Of the many new technologies today, it is
drone technology that can immediately change the face of farming, making it
more attractive as a vocation and business undertaking for the youth in
general."
So PhilRice, he says, with Roger Barroga as Coordinator, is
"among those pushing for the introduction of drones in farming to achieve
better efficiencies and higher profitability." And in initial field tests
with PhilRice's FutureRice program partnering with drone firm New Hope Corp in
Davao, the use of drones saved 90% in sprayed fertilizer compared to 160
liters/ha using a knapsack sprayer. The liquid fertilizer must be organic; if Ramgro,
the Internet tells me it costs P500/liter;
so, for 144 liters, that means savings of P72,000/ha
per spraying, a king's ransom in these parts!
So, with such high tech and high savings, Mr Dar says,
"I can venture to say that drones, while making agriculture look sexy to
the youth, is proving to be a valuable tool to increase farming efficiency and
profitability." And, "the image of farmers using drones can help
attract more of the youth to farming…
And perhaps a few
years from now, the more popular image of the Filipino farmer is a young
individual deploying a drone and standing beside his or her computer that
monitors the drone or gets data from the drone.
Now, we have work to do. We adults must teach the youth
entrepreneurship, along with using the drone, how to decrease gross costs and increase
net returns. Even with
organic farming, a farmer cannot live by drone alone!
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