Kansas State University is partnering with DJI, a Chinese company that is the world's leading maker of unmanned aerial vehicles, to develop more sustainable practice and increases farm yields with the use of drone technology.

“The population by 2050 is expected to reach 9 billion people here on earth,” said Ray Asebedo, assistant professor of precision agriculture at Kansas State University. “What that means for agriculture is that we’ve got to double production.”

One producer who is utilizing UAV technology on his own farm is Ron Ohlde of Ohlde Seed Farms in north central Kansas.

DEGREE OF GFEEN:Thermal imaging that helps deteremine the health of a growin crop and pinpoint where more nitrogen is needed helps farmers use fewer inputs and increasse yields.

Ohlde says that drone technology has made his precision agriculture operations more efficient and help save him time in data gathering.

“In our operation the use of drones has helped us tremendously,” Ohlde said. “We used to have to walk our fields now drone technology gives us data back virtually immediately.”

Kansas State University and DJI are pursuing agriculture research collaborations that include crop-stress monitoring, aerial-imaging, precision-spraying and the development and evaluation of next-generation unmanned aerial systems for precision agriculture use. 

“Our partnership with Kansas State University is helping educators, students and researchers develop more sustainable practices that increase yields in agriculture,” said Romeo Durscher, DJI director of education. “We’re proud to part of the solution by improving agriculture for the future.”

You can hear more of Ohlde's story in "Feeding the World," a DJI video about the company’s partnership with Kansas State University to utilize drone technologies in precision agriculture, providing more sustainable practices and helping increase farm yields.

DJI is a global leader in developing and manufacturing innovative drone and camera technology for commercial and recreational use. DJI was founded and is run by people with a passion for remote-controlled helicopters and experts in flight-control technology and camera stabilization.

The company is dedicated to making aerial photography and filmmaking equipment and platforms more reliable and easier to use for creators and innovators around the world. DJI’s global operations currently span North America, Europe and Asia, and its products have been chosen by customers in over 100 countries for applications in film, advertising, construction, firefighting, farming, and many other industries.