SCIENTISTS at Fera are to fly a drone this summer to identify stressed crops on Yorkshire farms.

Many of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide an aerial view of the crops and some types of stress may be visible – but only when it is fairly well advanced when it may be too late for farmers and growers to act.

However, the type of drone the scientists are piloting show healthy crops as bright green and unhealthy ones as red – even those which, to the naked eye, don’t appear to be affected.

Images taken in this way can also be linked to precise coordinates resulting in highly accurate mapping.

Paul Brown, GI remote sensing scientist at Fera, said: “The UAV, a new investment by Fera, will initially be used to study crop stress in Yorkshire and beyond. So, over the summer, we’ll be working with farmers and growers to help develop methods of analysing crop stress and plant identification.

"We’re keen to hear from farmers with other ideas about how the UAV might make things easier, for example, do you need it to map the advance of black grass, to point out areas of water stress, for the precision application of pesticides and fertilisers or will highly accurate mapping benefit the farm? Working with farmers will enable us to develop a service that really reflects farmers’ needs."

Though imagery will be a key part of the UAV’s methods of sensing problems in crops, in the future, it will also be able to carry other scientific equipment, such as spore and pathogen traps currently being developed by Fera.

In the longer term, it could also be used to assist water companies in spotting leaks, quickly and easily identify issues affecting gas and electricity supplies, or finding missing livestock.

FERA is based at the National Agri-Food Innovation Campus at Sandhutton, York. It was formerly the Food and Environment Research Agency.