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Omolola Ademola
March 11, 2021, 3:39 p.m.

As a specialist that has worked with drones and with the recent pandemic that took place from December 2019, how can drones be utilized in the agricultural sector to combat food insecurity in the era of Covid-19? How can we incorporate these drones into the agricultural sector insuring the farm products can be safe to eat??

3 Answer requests

Ifueko Igbinedion Doctoral Student @ MIT
city Boston, United States March 11, 2021, 5:52 p.m.
First I will say that I don't have an extensive background on agriculture. However in the short tern and from a resource consumption perspective, the monitoring capabilities that unmanned vehicles possess can allow for the collection of consumption data that can be later optimized to reduce resource wastage of water, fertilizer, electricity, and other important resources. Building capabilities that analyze the environment could additionally help prevent damage to that environment, such as groundwater pollution and other problematic situations. From the food insecurity perspective, Indoor, vertical farming could also potentially optimized and improved through the incorporation of UAVs to provide fresh produce to areas with food insecurity. Such a system, however, would need to be evaluated by agriculture scientists in terms of the environmental impact of the system itself, what resources would be needed to maintain it, and the potential for contamination of food through in close proximity to the system.

I think that this application could have a huge impact, but needs to be thought about carefully from not just the financial benefit and food safety perspective, but also from an ethical perspective that includes all affected parties and environments.
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