Are Drones Expensive? Agricultural Drones More Economical As Farm Workers Become Scarce

The most common reaction of naysayers in Agricultural innovations is to dismiss new farm equipment as expensive which would take away jobs from farm workers.
First, let’s talk about the economics of an Agricultural Drone.
It would take one day for 5 farm workers to plant Sorghum manually in an hectare and assuming that they would be paid P400 each, that’s P2,000 per hectare plus another P500 for food and snacks.
Drone rental per hectare is only P800 to P1,000 and it could cover the whole area in 10 minutes, plus there would be no food and snacks.
That’s a savings of at least P1,000 per hectare.
If the field is ready, one drone could cover 50 hectares in one day saving the farmer P50,000.
Now, for the claim that using modern farm equipment would disenfranchise wokers.
First, there’s not too many farm workers available now.
Since the government implemented the 4Ps program, so many rural workers now would rather wait for the pay-out than work under the heat of the sun.
This is real-talk based on testimonies from farm owners and even agricultural companies that they had a hard time looking for workers for at least a week after the 4Ps payout.
Agricultural Drones like the DJI Agras T30 costs between P800,000 to P1.1-M.
Compare that to a 95HP 4-WD farm tractors which costs about P2.5-million.
So, if we really aspire to produce enough food for the country, it is time to embrace modern agriculture technology and farming innovations.
#FarmingIsAppliedScience!
(Photos show the newly-acquired DJI Agras T30 Agri Drone of our small company, Southseas Agri-Aqua Ventures, Inc.)