Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advanced Research in Management, Business and Finance
Year: 2024
DOI:
[PDF]
The Utility of Drones in Food Supply Chains – from Farm to Fork
Selwyn Piramuthu
ABSTRACT:
The last decade has witnessed an increase in adoption of drones in a wide variety of application areas. While drones were primarily used for military applications in the distant past, drones are beginning to be used in several civilian applications with improved performance results. This includes such disparate applications as medicine delivery to hard-to-reach areas, accurate survey of farms with on-board sensors that measure humidity, temperature, pest infections, among others for precision agriculture, last mile delivery of retail items, and warehouse inventory management. We discuss drone use in food supply chains, beginning at the farm for precision agriculture to the food item reaching its consumer. Specifically, we consider the sensors used in precision agriculture and their utility in reducing usage of water, pesticides, and fertilizers through spot applications rather than blanket applications; the use of drones in transportation of fresh produce from farm to the nearest location for further processing while ensuring the appropriate maintenance of ambient conditions for reducing the spoilage rate; and ultimately the delivery of the items to the end-consumers.
keywords: Drones; food supply chains; sensors; last mile delivery; machine learning