Mini-helicopters can water fields and spray crops more efficiently and save money for cash-strapped businesses.
In the sleepy village of Chetrosu, just southeast of Moldova’s capital, Boris Podlesnii has turned to drones to bring his agricultural methods into the 21st century.
Usually he would be hauling out pipes, hoses, and his well-worn tractor to water, fertilize, and spray insecticides across his 100 hectares of rapeseed fields. But Podlesnii this year hired a local entrepreneur to send a robotic drone to do the often back-breaking work, saving time and fuel and avoiding damaging crops with heavy machinery in the process. The savings are already tangible, he says, especially with diesel prices soaring more than 40 percent in the past year alone.
“We were just destroying” the crops, Podlesnii said. Now, “the drone company started work during the day and finished it that night.”
High-Tech Farming
Podlesnii is not alone. An increasing number of farmers in Moldova – a former Soviet republic sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine that depends on agriculture and food production for as much as 40 percent of its total economic output – are determined to catch up with the rest of Europe in deploying modern technology to boost yields and cut costs in Europe’s third-poorest country per capita. The transition is also coming at a time of a growing global food crisis.
While drones are increasingly associated with military applications, as illustrated in the war raging across the border in neighboring Ukraine, their peaceful deployment in agriculture, thanks to entrepreneurs such as Vitalie Secara’s company Dron Assistance S.R.L., is helping small farmers improve their crop yields and giving them a more secure livelihood. And as younger, more tech-savvy farmers enter the industry, the concept of using robotics and satellite imagery to tend to fields will take firmer hold.
“Drones are the future of agriculture and beyond,” said Viorel Chivriga, an economist at IDIS Viitorul, an independent think tank in the capital Chisinau. “Agriculture is an industry that needs to be rethought to make it attractive to those who use such technology. Moldova needs such young professionals to change agriculture.”
A few decades ago, replacing tractors with digital alternatives would have sounded like something out of a science-fiction novel. The use of high technology in agriculture, called AgTech, is being phased in even in the largely agrarian Moldova.
Drones for Irrigation and Crop Spraying
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade group monitoring the increased use of drones in agriculture, estimates that about 80 percent of farms will soon employ drones to water crops, protect them from insects and disease, and spread seeds across fertile ground more efficiently than traditional farm equipment. In Moldova, their use can also solve the problem of labor shortages in the rural villages that dot the lush countryside.
Secara’s two-year-old company was the first in Moldova to receive permission for agricultural “flights.” The idea came to him when he was trying to figure out how to treat pest infestation in a walnut tree growing in his garden. He wondered how he could spray the highest branches of the tree and started looking online for answers.
Today, the company he runs has 12 drones of different carrying capacities. Prices range from 180 to 500 leu ($9-$26) for the treatment of one hectare of farmland. The drones can even reach steep slopes and operate at night, he said.
“They are programmed to follow a command,’’ he said. “The height, width, and surface to which it should spray the fertilizer are adjusted automatically.”
And that is a revelation for many farmers across Moldova.
At a time of increased worries about drought and irrigation costs, drones save water. In Chetrosu, farmer Podlesnii explained that traditional irrigation sprinklers use about 200-300 liters of water per hectare, while drones accomplish the same job using 10 to 20 liters, depending on the flying machine’s carrying capacity.
“We realized that if we were transporting water 10 kilometers away, we would also have to spend more on diesel fuel,” Podlesnii said. He estimates he has saved about 150 liters of diesel this year. The savings are tangible, as the cost of diesel fuel rose from 18 leu per liter in October 2021 to 25.5 leu in October 2022. Since implementing the drone technology, the farmer has spent 15 percent less than he would have using a tractor.
Podlesnii also notes that there is no longer a need for three spraying employees: one to operate the sprinkler, one who brings in water, and a third who is responsible for the chemicals.
But there are downsides to drones that have to be reckoned with, he said, such as using insecticides that waft into neighboring crops not rated for the same chemical and damage or destroy them. The dearth of companies offering drone services also means that, for now, farmers often have to wait in line for a drone.
Still, there is no question that AgTech is revolutionizing local farming. In Criuleni, an hour’s drive north of Podlesnii’s fields along the Dniester River, Maksim Vrabie has been growing wheat, barley, corn, rapeseed, and sunflowers for five years on 1,500 hectares of land. He first used drones in 2020 to reduce the use of industrial sprinkling systems.
Cost Savings Compared to Standard Methods
Vrabie says that regardless of the method of spraying, the amount of insecticide remains the same, while less water is used than with traditional sprinklers, making the treatment more effective.
“Thanks to the drone, we can work immediately after the rains when the field is wet and no other equipment can be used,” Vrabie said. “This way we save time.’’
He believes that drones, used effectively, can be a good complement to irrigators for field work in large areas. As for investing in drones, he says it depends on the scale of the business.
“You have to consider the farmer’s financial capabilities and the size of the cultivated area,” Vrabie explained. “If the farmland is small, obviously the costs would be high, and it wouldn’t be feasible. But for large farmers it would be a good idea to buy drones.”
In the Basarabeasca district, abutting southern Ukraine, Semion Vornic knows farming: He’s been doing it for 32 years, sowing his fertile fields with wheat, barley, sorghum, peas, and sunflowers as well as tending vineyards for Moldova’s expanding wine industry.
He was also one of the first in Moldova to test the efficacy of drones in agriculture, having deployed them now for the past three years. It all comes down to fine-tuning the dosage of pesticides, he said.
“When spraying with tractors, the concentration of the solution is higher,’’ he said. “But with a drone, we can save 30 percent on pesticides, and they are getting more and more expensive.”
Entrepreneur Secara said pinpoint accuracy when spraying is one of the biggest advantages of using drones.
“The small droplets form a kind of cloud, and this allows the pesticide to better penetrate the plant,” allowing a 20 to 40 percent decrease in the amount of pesticides used overall, he explained. “You don’t get big droplets on the leaves like you would with traditional spraying,” he said.
For those farmers who are considering buying their own drones, Secara said a drone with a 30-liter capacity can cost as much 20,000 euros, while a 5-liter drone costs about 5,000 euros.
It’s also not as simple as switching the drone on and letting it fly. Anton Danici, a senior inspector at Moldova’s Office of Flight and Civil Aviation, said users must purchase third-party liability insurance to cover any aviation accidents that may ensue. Approval from the Department of Defense, which controls Moldova’s entire airspace, is also required. In addition, the user must inform the national air-traffic authority on the day of the flight.
There are also flight rules to consider. While drones used for aerial photography are permitted to climb to 120 meters, the maximum altitude for vehicles used for spraying crops is 20 meters.
Still, as drones become more common and some of the red tape is eventually eased, the use of old tools and machinery in the farming industry will gradually be phased out, reducing uncertainty in the industry.
“In agriculture, every moment counts,’’ said economist Chivriga. “You lose time, you lose crops, you lose money.”
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Iuliana Volcova is a multimedia journalist at the regional broadcast outlet BAStv, reporting on the Basarabeasca region and other southern regions of Moldova.
Irina Soltan changed careers from medicine to journalism at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. She covers health issues, the economy, and politics for the news outlet AGORA.
Georgeta Carasiucenco, a journalist at Moldova.org, covers human rights with a special focus on issues affecting vulnerable groups.
Photos and video images by Irina Soltan.
This article was supported by the Fojo Media Institute’s solutions journalism program.
