Drones ease the backbreaking work of the Kingdom’s farmers
HAV ING witnessed firsthand the dangers faced by humans when spraying pesticide, IT graduate Heng Sopheak decided to quit his job to research and create pesticide spray ing drones t hat are a lready being put to work in severa l of the Kingdom’s prov inces.
Called t he Sprayer Drone, or Sprayer Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV ), Sopheak’s agricultura l drone offers a major innovation for farmers in the Kingdom, where agriculture remains the major industr y for inhabitants of r ura l areas.
Hailing from t he rice growing and cashew nut producing province of Kampong Thom, Sopheak completed his bachelor’s degree in Information Technolog y at Norton Universit y in 2003.
While working in IT and human resources for a garment factor y in Phnom Penh, he began researching agricultura l drones, building his first one last year.
“I became interested in agricultura l drone technolog y and saw its potentia l use in Cambodia. Eventually, I decided to quit my job and focus on it.
“I understand how hard farming is. To plant t hings is dif ficult, but to ta ke care of t hem is even harder. I’ve seen some people hesitate to ta ke jobs spray ing pesticides, fea ring t hey might get poisoned. I’ve seen farmers missing t heir spraying plan because the rain made t he dirt roads dif ficult to transport heav y equipment,” Sopheak said.
Working from his apartment i n Kouk Khleang v illage on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, drone components are scattered across Sopheak’s liv ing room floor, ready to be pieced toget her to form a f ully f unctional agricultura l UAV.
“If I am able to get a ll t he necessar y hardware parts t hat I need, it takes me about a week to make one [UAV ),” he said.
The 15kg drone can carr y 20
litres of liquid. It is equipped wit h GPS and five dif ferent t y pes of electrostatic sprayers suitable for dif ferent crops.
Sopheak said that most of t he parts needed to build the UAV are not loca lly available, meaning t heir construction is a matter of patience and sk i l l.
“Unfortunately it is quite challenging when it comes to finding t he right parts and components to make t his agricultura l drone in Cambodia. After nearly one year building t hese drones, I still find t he technica l process of building, in terms of both hardware and soft ware, complicated,” he said.
He said it has a lso proved challenging to conv ince farmers to tr y the new technolog y as they are unfa miliar wit h it.
“Our farmers ca ll it funny names, li ke litt le sprayer plane or l it t le sprayer helicopter,” t he 38-year-old joked. “Some farmers doubt if the new technique will work as they usually use about 200 litres of pesticides for spray ing, but t he drone only holds about 20 lit res. But it has t he capacit y to cover 1ha of crops in just 10 minutes; we use an electrostatic sprayer so a ll t hey see is just a light mist coming out of t he drone.”
Sopheak a lso said his drone sprayer uses 20 to 50 per cent less pesticide solution compared to doing the work manually.
“The amount of pesticide powder is the same, but we just dissolve it in less water. It is a high concentration pesticide solution,” he explained.
“This means it has less of an impact on the env ironment. It works well within an area without wasting t he spray outside t he borders, reducing the amount of chemicals needed. The UAV can also be used in the dark as it is equipped with a light,” he said.
Sopheak said that in addition to helping by removing human sprayers from being exposed to the pesticides, t he drone is a lso more efficient and less prone to mista kes.
“When it come to work done by humans, sometimes we can be a bit careless. With a drone we cannot make any errors; it works according to the map we draw and height we set. When it runs out of liquid, it automatica lly marks t he last stop point and flies back. After t he refill, it sta r ts at t he last stop,” he said.
Sopheak currently travels around the Kingdom prov iding his commercial pesticide ser v ices for farmers, charging bet ween 40,000 to 100,000 riel ($10 to $25) per hectare, depending on the t y pe of crops and geography.
He finds that crops grown on hillsides are t he most challenging for his drone.
“Though it can be used with a lmost a ll t y pes of crops and land, ones [situated] on a slope are a bit risk y. Even though we can equip the drone with an FPV camera and terra in-follow ing radar to assist wit h t he flying, it is st i l l not t he most effective for plants growing high on t he hillside,” he said.
His drones have been put to work in rice paddies, pepper plantations, cashew nut plantations and mango plantations, among others, in Siem Reap, Battambang, Kratie, Banteay Meanchey, Tbong Khmum, Kandal and Kampong Thom provinces.
“The number of people booking my ser v ices for commercial use keeps increasing, while only few people are interested to buy and use it on t heir own,” he said, adding that only farmers with enough money are interested in purchasing t heir own.
“The agricultura l drone costs bet ween $ 6,000 and $20,000 depending on its size. None of my products are available in t he market, but a farmer can place an indiv idua l order,” he added.
Sopheak is also look ing into t he drone being used to dispense fertiliser and for seeding purposes.
“I’ll keep studying and researching more about the drone being used to spread seeds, monitor crops, treat crops, analyse soil and for irrigat ion,” he said.
Sopheak says t hat t he f uture for farmers in the Kingdom could prove bright if technolog y is harnessed to make the industr y more ef ficient.
“The f uture of farming will be more efficient and have higher y ields if our farmers adapt to new technolog y. I believe i n t he near f uture, drones will make agriculture less labour-intensive. I’m a lso positive about the growing support from our famers, both old and young, who are catching up with the tech development and making good use of it,” he said.